Very early on Tuesday November 2nd, my search dog saved a life.
This is not something that happens to me every day, I have a very calm office job. The usual crisis involves a mis-communication over email, nothing life and death. My work with canine search and rescue is my volunteer work. It’s something I do to keep three highly active dogs busy and just maybe, get to make a difference in the world.
It’s something I have spent thousands of my own dollars for training, thousands of hours of my time, thousands of miles on my vehicle, traveled to both coasts of the United States, and used lots of emotional/mental/physical energy. I’ve also been in canine search and rescue for 10 years.
It is worth every second/penny and more to know that my dog and I brought someones father safely home.
The other interesting thing is, someone had thrown away my dog. Dunder the Search Dog (aka Moses) was turned into the Animal Rescue League of Iowa in the spring of 2008. The family wasn’t ready for a high energy, mouthy, barky puppy who was really pushy. They turned him in at 16 weeks old. Lucky for me, the Paws of Life Foundation has a program to find dogs such as this and then places them with working dog handlers.
I didn’t train Dunder by myself so can’t take all the credit. I regularly work with other search teams here in Iowa, I have hundreds of people who have hidden for him, helped me troubleshoot my training and also provided advice. Out on the search that night where people from three different fire departments, two law enforcement agencies, two different search and rescue teams and the military (that’s who I can think of off the top of my head).
A search like this is an emergency, the subject wasn’t dressed for the weather and with lows in the 40’s that night, could easily have succumbed to hypothermia. We had plans to search all night.
When we found our subject, Dunder was truly excited, I was flustered. First, I forgot his toy, which is his reward for finding someone. We ended up playing tug with my shirt while I was on the phone with the Search Manager to request an ambulance. Second, we ended up removing our layers of clothes to help cover him to keep him warm until the ambulance arrived. Dunder was constantly trying to get back to him, I think to check and see if he was okay.
For the past couple of days I’ve come to realize, this is sort of a big deal. I see the world a little differently now, I also see my profession of a search and rescue canine handler a little differently. It is a life or death job…the dogs we train do make a difference.
We need to step up and meet the responsibility.
Wags,
Robin Habeger and K9 Dunder
With the number of disasters happening this year, it’s important to keep in mind some very important facts about search and rescue dogs and their handlers. The majority of the search dog handlers in the nation are volunteers. Whether they are with a local search and rescue team, a state task force or a FEMA team, these people have spent hours and thousands of their own dollars training for deployments just like this.