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| Badger clearing the scale jump at Te Papa's Natural Disaster awareness weekend, Wellington. |
The team
Presently CSD attracts its members from the southern half of the North Island. However, as an organisation we are equipped to respond to any emergency call-out in New Zealand where search dogs are required.
CSD currently has 17 members, of whom two are operational for wilderness SAR and all are call-out qualified. All the teams are expected to work towards, and complete, the wilderness and/or urban search and rescue qualifications as prescribed by the New Zealand Police and the Ministry of Emergency Management, respectively.
CSD draws on the experience of two highly regarded dog trainers (Mike King and Dave Garwood) who have extensive experience in the training of working dogs eg. Obedience Trials, Working Trials and Tracking. Individually, the group members have diverse backgrounds and experience to com-plement the dog training.
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Dave and Yoda searching rubble for live casualties.
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It is the competency and professionalism exhibited by our teams in training and real life emergency situations that demonstrate the commitment each of our dogs and their handlers have towards fulfilling the objectives of Central Search Dogs.
Certification
Wilderness Qualifications -Wilderness Teams are qualified by the New Zealand Police Dog Section.
Emergency Response Qualifications - National Urban Search and Rescue standards (FEMA Standard) are currently being developed by the Ministry of Emergency Management.
The Team: "We may not make a world of difference, but we make a difference in the world."
