#152 Lucas Bellanceau: Raising Working K9s from Puppyhood to Search and Rescue

A dog can look great in a 30-minute selection test. What happens after the first few searches, when the novelty wears off and the dog has to keep hunting?

On K9s Talking Scents, Maine Warden Service K9 Corporal Lucas Bellanceau joins Cameron Ford to talk about building working dogs from puppyhood. They cover Labrador pedigrees, hunt drive versus arousal, early environmental exposure, and what happens when a dog’s training is ahead of its handler’s timing.

Lucas also takes us inside Maine’s search-and-rescue K9 program: what goes into its 540-hour basic school, how teams train across multiple disciplines, and how a dog can use both tracking and air scent on the same search.

Maine Warden Service K9 Team:

https://www.maine.gov/ifw/warden-service/specialty-teams/k9.html

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