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| Zoe preparing to descend the flying fox out of the grandstand at the Pet Expo, Trentham, Wellington. |
CENTRAL Search Dogs (CSD) is a community-based Canine Search and Rescue (K9-SAR) organisation that trains search and rescue dogs, their handlers and support personnel in order to provide professional and highly-skilled search and rescue teams to assist Emergency Service Agencies in their operations.
Although the concept of using Dogs in Search and Rescue operations is not new, there is currently a demand from New Zealand Emergency Service Agencies for properly trained and certified Search and Rescue Dog Teams.
CSD comprises a group of dedicated individuals who volun-teer their time, energy, and resources to help fulfill this need. Drawing members from the southern half of the North Island, CSD presently has 17 dog handlers and an additional 15 teams training at the elementary level.
Basically, there are two kinds of dogs employed in search and rescue: (1) the air scent dog, and (2) the trailing/tracking dog. Air Scent Search Dogs are trained to find missing people by following scent which is carried on the air. This is a very efficient method of searching large areas quickly.
Trailing dogs follow residual human scent left on the ground from a person passing over the area whereas Tracking dogs detect the track where a person has walked from scent originating from ground disturbance.
These latter techniques are ideal where there is a 'last known location' for the person.
While SAR dogs are capable, in principle, of being trained for both types of searching, most dog handlers train their dogs to specialize in one or the other type of work, i.e. air scent or trailing/tracking. In the best of all possible worlds, the most valuable dog team, is a dog that can switch back and forth between air scenting and tracking/trailing as conditions prescribe, with a dog handler who is a skilled mantracker.
Although the basic search method used by the dog (i.e. location of scent and indication of the source of the scent to the handler) is the same for all situations, specific training is carried out for different situations; each situation (snow, wilderness, disaster) has it's own skill requirements additional to the common search skills.
In the wilderness, the dog should be working considerable distances from the handler, hunting for the casualty - there is clearly a requirement that the handler knows what area the dog has searched.
In an urban disaster situation, the dog must work under close control of the handler.
CSD trains dog teams for both scenarios; (1) the search and location of people lost in wilderness environments and (2) urban search and rescue (USAR), the location of victims in collapsed buildings.
The best way to learn first hand about SAR dog training is to actually join the team at one of its weekly training sessions (see the website at www.searchdog.org.nz for more informa-tion).
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| Zoe descending the flying fox at the Pet Expo, Trentham, Wellington. |
Central Search Dogs meets on a regular schedule for weekly training at sites covering the southern half of the North Island. CSD holds regular K9-SAR introductory courses.
The first 10-week elementary-1 course introduces the basic tracking skills, and teams that graduate from this course are eligible to attend the elemen-tary- 2 course in which air scent searching is introduced. To attend any of these courses the dog team should be able to demonstrate a competence with basic obedience and agility commands.
K9-SAR is not a cheap pursuit; and being volunteers the expense to the handler comes from your time and mileage to and from training and from the gradual accumulation of all your SAR gear.
However, being a member of the Central Search Dog's K9- SAR team is very rewarding. There's nothing to match that feeling of exhilaration and pride you get whenever your dog makes a successful "find" especially with the knowledge that your efforts may be part of a search plan to save a life.
