Air Scenting Search Dogs search routes, paths and areas looking for human scent particles.
They do not discriminate scent e.g. they do not look for specific people but will look for anyone that is in the area.
Once the dog finds a missing person they will return to their handler and ‘indicate‘ with a bark or by jumping up at them. Then the dog will take their handler back to the missing person with a ‘show me‘ command.
On finding the missing person the handler ‘rewards‘ the dog with their favourite toy and/or food whilst heaping lots of praise on them.
It is this ‘game’ through years of training that drives the dog to find the missing person.