Dogs have performed search work for thousands of years. The first "organized" program in the United States trained to work scent search began in 1907 with the South Orange, New Jersey and New York City Police Departments.
Everyone agrees that the function Search and Rescue Dogs(SAR) perform is extraordinary. A SAR's Dogs abilities are often misunderstood or underestimated, a fact that seems to originate with a lack of appreciation for the astounding scenting capabilities of a dog!
You're probably asking yourself, "Just what does a Search and Rescue Dog do?"
Dogs define the world around them by their sense of smell. From birth, they can neither see or hear, so smell is their most important sense and their only way to reconize mom. When they get a scent they get a total configuration, where we only get an odor. A good example: We consider salt to be odorless yet a dog can distinquish between 2 containers of water, one of which contains salt. Scent wafting on the wind holds little significance to humans. Unless of coarse you happen to be in the vicinity of a Burger King Restaurant. But, to a dog, especially one trained to locate lost humans, the same scent is as informative as reading a newspaper is to humans.
In a nutshell, Search and Rescue Dogs are motivated to locate human scent that moves around on air currents, and to follow that scent to its source-"the victim". We use the word "motivated" because we don't train a dog to use it's nose, it already knows how to do that, we just motivate the dog to use it and to use it on command.
Every person, animal and object has an individual scent. Humans shed 40,000 dead skin cells per minute. Mingled with each cell is bacteria and vapors that make~up a persons individual scent. Skin pore structures of different races also affects the scent. In decreasing order of scent intensity are blacks, browns, whites and orientals which have the least intense body scent. Just as an adult lays a more intense scent than a child does because they have a more mature hormonal system, larger body area and greater weight.
One of the "HOTTEST" trails is "fear scent"!! Dogs sometimes go beyond normal limits when on this type of scent.
Search and Rescue Dogs are employed in a variety of emergency circumstances, such as, urban and wilderness settings to locate missing persons, in situations following a disaster such as earthquake or hurricanes, and following avalanche or drowning incidents. SAR Dogs are also used for cadaver searches and evidence searches as well.
Search and Rescue Dogs are an "IMPORTANT ASSET" in locating lost persons. In searches where dogs are used, the probability of detection goes up dramatically using just the one dog and its handler. One dog team searches more effectively than 30 line searches. In snow or disaster debris the effectiveness ratio climbs even higher.
In a wilderness search where a person is missing in a general area with no known particular "place last seen" (PLS), the search area is usually divided up into sectors. Then each sector is searched by the dog working then back and forth across the area, and into the wind, if its possible. This would be an ideal situation but as most of you know, you very rarely get the ideal situation when it comes to rescue work. This is where the experience and resourcefullness of the dog and handler then become very important. Should a situation exist where a person's track could be located, of course tracking skills are employed.
The Dog and Handler must work as a team; the dog has the nose and you as the human contributes tactical guidence. An important thing to remember in most cases is the dog/handler team do not find the victim. In these cases, there's one thing we're pretty sure of and that is that the vicitim wasn't in the area searched! This information in itself is vital to search managers.
Disaster Search techniques and skills are quite different from Wilderness Searches. The objective is still the same and the search is conducted sector by sector. But, the process is slower and in much smaller spaces--the footing and conditions can be dangerous and the dog must adapt well to these situations. The dog must respond almost immediately to direction from its handler since conditions can deteriorate quickly on a disaster site. The dog is trained to indicate human scent either by barking or at least scratching and whining as close to the location of the person as possible. Dogs can and do indicate persons buried many feet down under debris even in situations where a fire has taken place or where chemicals are present. Dogs indicate both living and deceased persons; but their indications are different for each. Disaster Search is very difficult in the sense that the victim cannot necessarily be seen or heard at all and a handler has to "trust" the dog to indicate the scent.
Search and Rescue Dogs have also proven valuable in water searches. Contrary to myth, dogs can in fact detect human scent quite well through water. The dog and handler work from a boat or from shore, again using the wind to their advantage if at all possible.
Search and Rescue is not all the glory everyone thinks it is and it isn't for everyone either. In training and subsequently working a SAR Dog, We don't just take the dog out, let it run around and hope for the best!
Many people get into Search and Rescue with the impression in a few months time, their dog will be ready to start searching for "victims". WRONG!
Before you'll be ready to go into the field with your dog your looking at a lengthy process, {normally about 2 years} followed by a life long commitment to build and maintain a level of confidence and experience necessary to keep the SAR Team "mission ready". The dog's skill level and motivation must be very high. You as a handler must be able to work your dog at night as well as day. The handler must be proficient in a number of areas, such as map and compass reading, rappelling, radio communications, wilderness survival, emergency site management, basic rescue skills, search management, First Aid and CPR. For both humans and canines. There are much more things involved sush as wind direction, time of day and temperature. Many factors come into play when working a certain problem.
Search and Rescue dogs do their job because they love the game and never tire of it. Keeping dogs interested and on the cutting edge is the job of the trainer/handler. You hear handlers talking about "reading" the dogs alert--both natural and trained. This is the key to successful SAR handling and coincidentally the most difficult aspect of the training.
Remember before getting into SAR that even though the work is tremendously rewarding, it is a lot of hard work training yourself and your dog. The bottom line is, SAR work requires a great deal of time out of your life, in fact, it can become your life; it will cost your thousands of dollars in equipment, travel and training; once your are certified as "mission ready", call-outs occur at inconvenient times and conditions during a search are likely uncomfortable. But the reward of aiding a family in finding a loved-one defies description.
Remember there are many people out there though that have been in this for alot of years and have not a find to their name, they work in a unit as a team. Many people get into this with the impression that their dog is going to make a find right away, all who participate in a search deserve the credit of the find, as it is a coordinated effort by all who participate.
