Search and Rescue Dogs: Background information when reading Breaking Wild

Search and Rescue Dogs

This article relates to Breaking Wild

If you've ever had a dog, you know that they are constantly using their noses to find things—crumbs on the floor, a buried bone, a chew toy kicked under the sofa, a piece of pizza under a bush in the park. Search And Rescue dogs are trained to use this natural ability to locate missing people and then to notify their handler when they've found them.

According to NASAR, the National Association For Search And Rescue, SAR dogs and their handlers work as volunteers under the direction of law enforcement and emergency service agencies to help locate children and elderly people lost in parks or in neighborhoods with lots of shrubbery; hikers and hunters lost in the wilderness; train and plane-wreck victims and those missing after natural disasters such as avalanches, earthquakes, floods, explosions, fires, and tornadoes. SAR teams do not respond to private requests or to searches that may put the dog and handler in peril.

The United States Search and Rescue Task Force reports that Search and Rescue dogs are trained and certified in one or more areas that include tracking and trailing, air scent, cadaver, water search and avalanche recovery.

Tracking and trailing dogs are trained to be able to find a specific person—they pick up the scent of heavier skin cells cast off and left close to the ground by the person being tracked. They work with a harness and a 20—30 foot leash, nose to the ground.

Air scent dogs work with their handlers off leash and are trained to locate human scent which we humans constantly emit as millions of airborne microscopic particles—more than 40,000 skin cells shed per minute—are carried by the wind for miles. Although these kinds of SAR dogs often don't discriminate between individuals, they can continue to pick up on general human scent long after a track has been erased by the elements. Dogs trained for tracking and trailing can easily be later trained for air scent recovery, but rarely does it work well the other way around, probably because air scent is the easiest to teach and once learned, it is difficult for the dog to graduate on to other systems. The best SAR dogs are usually able to switch methods as facilitated by their handler.

Cadaver dogs are trained to find human remains above or underground. They are able to sniff out minute traces of flesh and blood, while SAR water dogs detect human scent through water. SAR avalanche dogs can do the same through 15 feet or more of deep snow, and disaster dogs are coached to find humans amidst the chaos of collapsed structures.

Training a SAR dog usually begins with a puppy at 12 weeks, although older dogs who have a good working relationship with their owner can also make good candidates. Lessons for any of the various types of Search and Rescue takes at least a year, working a minimum of twice a week—more time is required if multiple kinds of search specialties are being taught. Candidates need to be trainable, agile, have good stamina and get along well with both other dogs and with people in addition to their handler. SAR dogs most often come from the larger working and sporting breeds such as German Shepherds, Border Collies, Dobermans, Rottweilers, Golden Retrievers, Labradors, Giant Schnauzers and Bloodhounds.

While training methods may vary from place to place, the basic concept is the same: a variety of mock searches and exercises disguised as play, starting with simple, progressing to increasingly complicated and difficult games of hide and seek. The lengthy process is reinforced by plenty of treats, rewards and praise. There are a number of books and seminars available on training methods. SAR handlers can attend the Annual Conference of the National Association for Search and Rescue to share and exchange information.

John Ball and his dog Darcy from the UK's International Search and Rescue team go to work in Chautara, Sindhupalchok District – north east of Kathmandu, Nepal, in the wake of the April 2015 earthquake. Picture by Jessica Lea/DFID

Filed under Nature and the Environment

This article relates to Breaking Wild. It first ran in the February 17, 2016 issue of BookBrowse Recommends.