Search and rescue dog - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

The use of dog
Dog
The domestic dog is a domesticated form of the gray wolf, a member of the Canidae family of the order Carnivora. The term is used for both feral and pet varieties. The dog may have been the first animal to be domesticated, and has been the most widely kept working, hunting, and companion animal in...

s in search and rescue
Search and rescue
Search and rescue is the search for and provision of aid to people who are in distress or imminent danger.The general field of search and rescue includes many specialty sub-fields, mostly based upon terrain considerations...

(SAR) is a valuable component in wilderness tracking, natural disasters, mass casualty events, and in locating missing people. Dedicated handlers and well-trained dogs are required for the use of dogs to be effective in search efforts. Search and rescue dogs are typically worked by a small team on foot, but can be worked from horseback

Mounted search and rescue

Mounted search and rescue is a specialty within search and rescue , using horses as search partners and for transportation to search for missing persons. SAR responders on horseback are primarily a search resource, but also can provide off-road logistics support and transportation...

.

Search and rescue (SAR) dogs detect human scent. Although the exact processes are still researched, it may include skin

Skin

-Dermis:The dermis is the layer of skin beneath the epidermis that consists of connective tissue and cushions the body from stress and strain. The dermis is tightly connected to the epidermis by a basement membrane. It also harbors many Mechanoreceptors that provide the sense of touch and heat...

rafts (scent-carrying skin cells that drop off living humans at a rate of about 40,000 cells per minute), evaporated perspiration, respiratory gases, or decomposition gases released by bacterial action on human skin or tissues.

Types

From their training and experience, search and rescue dogs can be classified broadly as either airscenting dogs or trailing (and tracking) dogs. They also can be classified according to whether they "scent discriminate", and under what conditions they can work. Scent discriminating dogs have proven their ability to alert only on the scent of an individual person, after being given a sample of that person's scent. Non-scent discriminating dogs alert on or follow any scent of a given type, such as any human scent or any cadaver scent. SAR dogs can be trained specifically for rubble searches, for water searches, and for avalanche searches.

Airscenting

Airscenting dogs primarily use airborne human scent to home in on subjects, whereas trailing dogs rely on scent of the specific subject. Airscenting dogs typically work off-lead, are non-scent-discriminating (e.g., locate scent from any human as opposed to a specific person), and cover large areas of terrain. These dogs are trained to follow diffused or wind-borne scent back to its source, return to the handler and indicate contact with the subject, and then lead the handler back to the subject. Handler technique, terrain, environment (vegetation), and atmospheric conditions (wind speed

Wind speed

Wind speed, or wind velocity, is a fundamental atmospheric rate.Wind speed affects weather forecasting, aircraft and maritime operations, construction projects, growth and metabolism rate of many plant species, and countless other implications....

and direction, temperature, humidity, and sky conditions) determine the area covered by airscenting dogs, although a typical search area may be 40–160 acres and scent sources can be detected from a distance of 1/4 mile or more. Although other breeds can be trained for airscenting, the prototypical airscenting dog is a herding (e.g., German

German Shepherd Dog

The German Shepherd Dog , also known as an Alsatian or just the German Shepherd, is a breed of large-sized dog that originated in Germany. The German Shepherd is a relatively new breed of dog, with its origin dating to 1899. As part of the Herding Group, the German Shepherd is a working dog...

or Belgian

Belgian Shepherd Dog

The Belgian Shepherd is a breed of medium-to-large-sized herding dog. It originated in Belgium and is similar to other sheep herding dogs from that region, including the Dutch Shepherd Dog, the German Shepherd Dog, the Briard and others...

shepherds, Border Collie

Border Collie

The Border Collie is a herding dog breed developed in the Anglo-Scottish border region for herding livestock, especially sheep. It is the most widespread of the collie breeds....

s) or sporting (e.g., Golden

Golden Retriever

The Golden Retriever is a medium-sized breed of dog. They were historically developed as gundogs to retrieve shot waterfowl such as ducks and upland game birds during hunting and shooting parties. As such, they were bred to have a soft mouth to retrieve game undamaged and have an instinctive love...

or Labrador

Labrador Retriever

The Labrador Retriever is one of several kinds of retriever, a type of gun dog. A breed characteristic is webbed paws for swimming, useful for the breed's original purpose of retrieving fishing nets. The Labrador is the most popular breed of dog by registered ownership in Canada, the United...

retrievers) breed that has a reputation for working closely and in coordination with a human handler.

Trailing and tracking

Trailing and tracking dogs are quite similar. Tracking dogs will typically work on lead and will mostly have their nose to the track following ground disturbance. A good tracking dog will be able to work through a variety of terrain as well as successfully maneuver turns and "double backs" that a subject might take. A trailing dog is scent specific, can also have his/her head up using some of the air scent techniques to find the subject. Trailing dogs will work on and off lead, and trailing dogs will venture off the actual path that a subject took should a scent pool be discovered. This is not to be considered an error by the dog, as they are following a specific scent and working to get to the source. It is a common misperception that only German Shepherd

German Shepherd Dog

s, Dobermans and the Bloodhound

Bloodhound

The Bloodhound is a large breed of dog which, while originally bred to hunt deer and wild boar, was later bred specifically to track human beings. It is a scenthound, tracking by smell, as opposed to a sighthound, which tracks using vision. It is famed for its ability to discern human odors even...

s do this type of work. Actually all dogs are capable of tracking and trailing, however the larger, sport, hound, working and herding breeds tend to be used more often simply for their adaptability in various terrain.

Variations

In addition to these types of dogs, some teams cross train dogs in both trailing and airscenting and use them as scent specific "area search dogs". Typically these dogs are worked in an area that an airscent dog would work, but are capable of ignoring other search teams and other people in or near the assigned search area. When deployed this way, these airscenting dogs require a scent article as does a trailing dog.

Applications

Specific applications for SAR dogs include wilderness, disaster, cadaver, avalanche, and drowning search and rescue or recovery.

In wilderness SAR applications, airscenting dogs can be deployed to high-probability areas (places where the subject may be or where the subject's scent may collect, such as in drainages in the early morning) whereas tracking/trailing dogs can be deployed from the subject's last known point (LKP) or the site of a discovered clue. Handlers must be capable of bush navigation, wilderness survival techniques, and be self-sufficient

Self-sufficiency

Self-sufficiency refers to the state of not requiring any outside aid, support, or interaction, for survival; it is therefore a type of personal or collective autonomy...

. The dogs must be capable of working for 4–8 hours without distraction (e.g., by wildlife).

Disaster dogs are used to locate victims of catastrophic or mass-casualty events (e.g., earthquakes, landslides, building collapses, aviation incidents). Many disaster dogs in the US are trained to meet the Federal Emergency Management Agency

Federal Emergency Management Agency

The Federal Emergency Management Agency is an agency of the United States Department of Homeland Security, initially created by Presidential Reorganization Plan No. 1 of 1978 and implemented by two Executive Orders...

K9 standards for domestic or international deployment; advanced agility and off-lead training are prerequisites reflecting the nature of these dogs' application. Disaster dogs rely primarily on airscent, and may be limited in mass-casualty events by their inability to differentiate between survivors and recently-deceased victims.

Human Remains Detection (HRD) or cadaver dogs are used to locate the remains of deceased victims. Depending on the nature of the search, these dogs may work off-lead (e.g., to search a large area for buried remains) or on-lead (to recover clues from a crime scene

Crime scene

A crime scene is a location where an illegal act took place, and comprises the area from which most of the physical evidence is retrieved by trained law enforcement personnel, crime scene investigators or in rare circumstances, forensic scientists....

). Airscenting and tracking/trailing dogs are often cross-trained as cadaver dogs, although the scent the dog detects is clearly of a different nature than that detected for live or recently-deceased subjects. Cadaver dogs can locate entire bodies (including those buried or submerged), decomposed bodies, body fragments (including blood, tissues, hair, and bones), or skeletal remains; the capability of the dog is dependent upon its training.

In the winter of 1997 through to the spring of 1998 Dr. Deb Komar of the University of Alberta

University of Alberta

The University of Alberta is a public research university located in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. Founded in 1908 by Alexander Cameron Rutherford, the first premier of Alberta and Henry Marshall Tory, its first president, it is widely recognized as one of the best universities in Canada...

, Canada conducted a study 'The use of cadaver dogs in cases of advanced decomposition: A field study in adverse recovery scenarios and animal vs human scent discrimination'. Dr. Komar worked with cadaver dog

Police dog

A police dog, often referred to as a "K-9 dog" in some areas , is a dog that is trained specifically to assist police and other law-enforcement personnel in their work...

teams from the RCMP Civilian Search Dog Program now the Canadian Search Dog Association and the Search and Rescue Dog Association of Alberta. This study showed the accuracy rates of cadaver dogs in moderate to adverse winter weather

Snow

Snow is a form of precipitation within the Earth's atmosphere in the form of crystalline water ice, consisting of a multitude of snowflakes that fall from clouds. Since snow is composed of small ice particles, it is a granular material. It has an open and therefore soft structure, unless packed by...

conditions, and also the dogs' capabilities to discriminate between animal and human remains

Body

With regard to living things, a body is the physical body of an individual. "Body" often is used in connection with appearance, health issues and death...

. It indicated that an accuracy rate near 100% can be achieved through careful and directed training. Her work has been published in the Journal of Forensic Anthropology. Of key importance was the materials used in training as the artificial scents available proved significantly different as compared to biological tissue

Biological tissue

Tissue is a cellular organizational level intermediate between cells and a complete organism. A tissue is an ensemble of cells, not necessarily identical, but from the same origin, that together carry out a specific function. These are called tissues because of their identical functioning...

containing bacteria, etc.

Avalanche dogs work similarly to airscenting, disaster, or cadaver dogs, and must be able to rapidly transition from a wilderness SAR-airscenting scenario to a disaster scenario focused on pinpointing the subject's location.

Missing Animal Search (MAS) Dogs use tracking, trailing and air scenting techniques in order to locate missing, trapped or injured animals and can be trained to locate deceased animals or remains. The Missing Animal Search Dogs Association based in Herefordshire in the UK are carrying out research in this area of search and rescue.

Training

Training is a rigorous, time-consuming and comprehensive process for both the dog and the handler. For the dog, training is best begun early in life (upon acquisition of a suitable puppy, 8–10 weeks) for deployment of the dog in 12–18 months and retirement at 5–10 years, depending on the breed and individual dog. Obedience training

Obedience training

Obedience training usually refers to the training of a dog and the term is most commonly used in that context. Obedience training ranges from very basic training, such as teaching the dog to reliably respond to basic commands such as "sit", "down", "come", and "stay", to high level competition...

is essential for the dog's safety, order at staging areas, and to maintain professionalism in law enforcement and the public audience. Socialization and handler-canine bonding are especially important for airscenting dogs. Basic agility training is necessary, and advanced training may pay off unexpectedly. Scent training should be initiated early using a variety of methods (see definitive works by Bulanda 1994 and ARDA 1991) and is often best accomplished by working with an experienced, well-established local training group that has a track record of working with local or state law enforcement.

For puppies, expect to train obedience, socialization, and agility daily 2-5 times for 10 up to 60 minutes, and scent training 3-7 times per week for 5–30 minutes. As the dog's abilities improve, daily obedience training continues, with impromptu or planned agility and socialization sessions. Scent training frequency decreases (3-5 times/week) but duration increases (20–60 minutes per session). Search-ready dogs need once-weekly training sessions (4–8 hours) along with frequent focus sessions (5–60 minutes, 3 or more times per week). Training outside the dog's primary focus (e.g., teaching an airscenting dog scent discrimination, cadaver, or avalanche techniques) should be done cautiously and only once the dog reliably performs in his primary training area.

Usually training starts as a game played with puppies, starting with simple reward-based training (i.e. puppy is given a treat or allowed to play with a toy upon showing a simple skill such as retrieving the toy and bringing it back to the trainer) and expanding outward to "games" with more specific job skills (i.e. a well-loved toy is scented with the desired scent to find; when puppy finds the toy, he/she is allowed to play with the toy; later, scent and toy are separated so that puppy will search for the scent and is rewarded with the toy afterward).

The "games" technique is particularly effective with dogs bred for retrieval (such as hunting and sporting breeds) but has also been successful with working

Working dog

A working dog refers to a canine working animal, i.e., a type of dog that is not merely a pet but learns and performs tasks to assist and/or entertain its human companions, or a breed of such origin...

and herding dog

Herding dog

A herding dog, also known as a stock dog or working dog, is a type of pastoral dog that either has been trained in herding or belongs to breeds developed for herding...

breeds. A more commonly used approach is to base training on herding, prey/pursuit, and pack instincts: initial training for puppies usually involves run-away games where the handler runs from the puppy and hides a short distance away. Basic instincts drive the puppy to locate the subject, initially by sight but with the association of human scent. To advance this training, the subject hides further away or longer times pass between departure of the subject and release of the dog. The dog is forced to rely increasingly on scent to locate the subject. Eventually, the dog can be transitioned to search without seeing the subject depart by simply giving the command used when he's released during basic runaway training. During all stages, finding the subject is reinforced by multiple means (praise, play, or food treats).

For the handler (again, based on wilderness airscenting experience), wilderness orienteering and wilderness self-sufficiency/survival are essential training skills. Dog handling skills must also be learned during training (e.g., recognizing working v. distracted behaviors, differentiating between alerts and finds, and positioning the dog to maximize terrain coverage). Of primary importance is the handler's ability to understand how the dog is working at any point in time, for which the handler will require detailed and intimate understanding of scent theory. Advanced emergency medical skills are usually not required but are advisable. There are rigorous studies of scent theory, lost person behavior, canine search technique, and incident command in hard-to-find publications by William (Bill) Syrotuck. Due to the level of physical exertion required at times, the top end SAR organizations may require difficult physical standardized test

Standardized test

A standardized test is a test that is administered and scored in a consistent, or "standard", manner. Standardized tests are designed in such a way that the questions, conditions for administering, scoring procedures, and interpretations are consistent and are administered and scored in a...

ing. This ensures that the handler is able to cope with the ever changing situations presented to them.

Airscenting dogs are trained to find (i.e., follow human scent to its source, be it human or traces of a human), but this basic process has been elaborated and improved upon: dogs now are commonly also trained in recall/refind and indication. The entire process may begin with the command "Go find!", indicating that the dog is to search until the find is made. After the find, the dog can be trained to return to the handler (recall), perform a trained indication (often a bark coupled with some form of meaningful touching of the handler, such as a paw placed on the handler's leg or a "sit-stay" at the handler's feet), and return to the subject (refind, sometimes cued with the "Show me!" command). Once the handler is with the subject, the dog is released (and during training, rewarded). Dogs are trained in the recall/refind shuttle between the handler and the source until the handler and subject are within sight (this builds on the dog's natural pack instinct). This is of greatest use in situations where the dog may be ranging from the handler (wilderness airscenting) or the subject may be concealed or out of sight (e.g., at night, hidden in brush), but is less useful for dogs trained for close-quarters searches (e.g., cadaver and drowning dogs).

There are two schools of thought on recognizing when the dog has made a find, the "natural" or untrained indication, versus the trained indication. With the natural indication, the handler must learn to recognize the dog's change in body language

Body language

Body language is a form of non-verbal communication, which consists of body posture, gestures, facial expressions, and eye movements. Humans send and interpret such signals almost entirely subconsciously....

when s/he has made a find. For example, the dog may approach the handler and give specific look, or return to the handler in a very determined manner; each dog's natural indication is unique and often difficult for the handler to accurately describe to others. This method is touted as being accurate (currently only method used by RCMP), instinctual, and natural thus requiring less training for the dog and more for the handler. This allows the dog to "Have a bad day" and given that it is still a natural reaction the dog will still react in the same way.

During training, the handler must learn to recognize this behavior without cueing the dog (lest the dog learn to "indicate" only when the handler subconsciously prompts him to, a common mistake during the training process), and can complicate early training sessions if the handler (who is learning to read the dog) fails to reward a successful find appropriately because she failed to recognize the dog's natural indication. Thus it is important to train with those having more experience. On scene, the handler must pay constant close attention to the dog, which may be difficult or dangerous in commonly encountered search scenarios (e.g., night, hazardous terrain, low-visibility, while navigating off-trail, when fatigued or distracted). Handlers using dogs trained to a natural indication risk missing finds outside of training scenarios, mistaking alerts for finds, or missing finds because a natural indication was not noticed or recognized, however they have the advantage in that as the dog tires or becomes distracted they will still exercise the natural behavior while they may not follow up with the trained response.

The trained indication involves an additional step in the search-find process; the dog is taught to perform a clearly recognizable behavior only upon finding the subject. For example, the dog may return to the handler and sit, perform a jump up, bark (either at the handler or near the subject), or grab a decoy or bringsel. Addition of this extra step during training is easily accomplished, has the benefit of being easily recognizable under any circumstance, and can be easily differentiated from an alert (see below). Often, training the dog to perform a specific behavior is easier and more reliable than training handlers to consistently and reliably read a dog's "natural" indication. This takes less training on the part of the handler and more on the part of the dog. An example of a trained response is that, when a distant find has been made, the dog can be taught to repeatedly shuttle between the subject and handler using a refind-return-indicate-refind sequence.

When using a trained indication, the behavior must be well-ingrained in the search-find-recall process that a fatigued dog does not skip it. Distractions are still a problem and extensive training must be done to avoid this lest something as simple as a loud noise or animal prevent the lost person from being found. Advanced dogs can be trained to give different indications depending upon the nature of the find: for example, a jump-up for a live airscent find and a sit for cadaver. A potential problem with this method is that poorly-trained dogs (or those who have been rushed through training) can become distracted before performing the alert.

An alert by an airscenting dog can be distinct from an indication (although for a dog that uses a natural indication, the two may not be distinguishable). Both involve being able to read the dog's behavior. Alerts are instances where an airscenting dog detects human scent but has not located the subject or source. Alerts can be recognized by a change in the dog's behavior—pointing, following a scent upwind, circling, or following scent up terrain or obstructions, for example. Recognizing an alert is important for any experienced handler, as the location of alerts along with wind conditions, environmental conditions, and terrain can be used by the handler to alter the search strategy. Regardless of whether the dog is trained to perform an indication on find, or whether the handler uses a natural indication on find, all handlers must be able to recognize an alert in order to effectively deploy their dog. Inexperienced handlers who use trained indications may have difficulty recognizing alerts, while handlers who rely on a natural indication may not be able to differentiate an alert from an indication (since the behaviors are essentially the same).

Training techniques for search dogs are not written in stone. There are many different techniques for training a dog for this type of work. Anyone interested in training a search dog should contact a reputable search dog organization and discuss the training methods used.

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.