Tag: disaster search dog

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Search Dogs in Haiti — coming home

As the efforts rescue efforts in Haiti wind down and the recovery phase begins,  think about what happens to all of the personnel who responded to the call for assistance, including the search dogs.  All will return to their ‘normal life’ back at home, whether it be a full time job as a firefighter or for many of the search dog handlers, going back to that ‘office job’.  As for the dogs, they go back to training and normal every day dogdom of eat, sleep, play, train (play and train since they should be the same thing).

I didn’t go to Haiti, Dunder and I have yet to be certified by FEMA. However, for the past two weeks I have had someone either stop by my office or send me an email  every day asking if I was going to get deployed.  I even had several people call to confirm meetings.  We will hopefully be attempting our FEMA certifications this summer, putting us on the roster to be deployed.  Dunder and I are now wilderness certified so we do respond that way. 

I know several handlers who were/are in Haiti and think about them every day.  In my experience as a search dog handler, there have been multiple day deployments which result in an almost euphoria filled feeling that when you get home, you go through something of a ‘aderinline crash’….meaning that you were so busy, you knew the job you were doing was incredibly important and getting home, back to the routine of your life, is some how a needed relief but incredibly anti climactic.  For me it often results in long bouts of sleep followed with the emotional release of a good cry.  (everyone handles it differently)

Guess what, dogs go through that too. 

In the case of Haiti or any other type of long term deployment, the dog was the center of their handlers attention, getting to go out and search (or for them, play) for hours with their handler, getting the attention of everyone else in the area and even checked regularly by a vet.  They also serve as an emotional balm to victims, other volunteers, the members of their own team and their handler.  Not to mention having the press follow them, random people asking to pet them and in general, being the center of the universe.  When the dog gets home, guess what, it’s back to just them and their handler and the every day routine of ‘just being a dog’.

One of the things as a handler we actually are trained to do, is watch out for ‘depression’ in our dogs.  This has more too do with the dog being so used to the attention, that when they get back home, they think that type of attention should continue.  We have to make sure they have an adjustment period.  In addition to trying to recover ourselves, we also have to help our dogs recover.  One of the best ways for us to make sure our dogs are mentally sharp is to continue to have them work, but to do as many fun things as possible in training.  Keeping up the motivation to train is sometimes very hard when you think no one cares several weeks after that big deployment is over.  We as a nation have a very short memory.  Don’t let these hero’s, whether they have two or four legs, be forgotten.

If you know someone who is a search dog handler or who went on this deployment to Haiti, the best thing you can do is thank them…then ask if you can hide for their dog to do a fun motivational search problem.  Also, thank them, agian in a month, and ask to hide for thier dog, agian.  Many, if not almost all of the handlers that went on the deployment to Haiti from the USA are volunteers, yes even those with the FEMA teams.  Some of the handlers are full time firefighters.  Most are volunteers who put their own personal life on hold to answer the call.  They are adjusting to being home, getting their life back in order, and having someone who will ask to be a victim can be a motivating tool for the handler.

If you are interested in becoming or learning more about becoming a search dog handler, you can go to www.k9handleracademy.com.  You should also spend some time and learn how to be prepared yourself for the type of natural disasters that are common in your area, have supplies stored.

As always, if you have questions, please ask.

Wags,

Robin and K9 Dunder  (NASAR Type I Area Search Team)

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Emergency Responders

What it takes to be a search dog….part 2

So, in the last post I talked about a dog that I was evaluating for search work, Mack.  One of the interesting things about dogs is that they do change according to their surroundings, just like we learn to adapt.

In the last post, I talked about how he would play tug and run up on the pile like a champ, how he even started barking for a toy.  But wouldn’t you know, getting him into a routine, in a household where he knew the rules, and they didn’t change, his drive dropped.  Drive you say?  You mean he could drive?  No, this is his inherent willingness to do the work….basically, what is that internal ‘thing’ that would make him want to do ANYTHING for the opportunity to play with a toy.  Once most of the stress was reduced in his life, his willingness to work for a toy also dropped.  Why?  My guess, most of his willingness to play with a toy came from stress.  It was one of the ‘safe’ ways he had learned to let out some of his frustrated energy.  AND he now could garner attention through just being a pet, having someone play with him like a regular dog and he didn’t have to focus all of his energy into the 5 minutes a day when someone would play with him.

Now, Mack is happily in a new pet home, with a mom and dad of his own where he’s very spoiled.   I actually get to talk to his new owners about 3 times a week and even saw pictures of him today.   He might not be what we look for in a search dog, but he’s very happy having the job of being someone’s pet.  That’s also a very important job for a dog.

Moses was sad to see his friend go, but Moe and I spent the weekend at a FEMA search dog testing.  We learned a lot and got to watch all of the different elements of a US&R test.  There were 7 dogs testing and only 2 passed the entire test.  These dogs are highly trained and in one day we asked them to work closely with their handler doing obedience and agility to working far away from their handler on a rubble pile they’ve never seen before to find someone buried in the rubble.  Moe and I didn’t test, we weren’t ready.

However, I did get to hide for some of the dogs which was fun.  If you can imagine laying in a concrete tube on a sleeping bag, under 6 feet of rubble as fun.  (I read a book while 3 of the dogs searched for and found me).  Moe and I did get to play a little bit later in the afternoon, I was very happy how he moved over the new piles and found his person.

Dogs are very situational, they do not generalize well.  This is the main reason why people have great dogs in the kitchen, but once you get them outside they have no idea what you are talking about if you ask them to sit.  It takes a long time to generalize a behavior for a dog, your kitchen is different than your bathroom, which is different than your back yard.  The fact that I can take my dog, drive for 6 hours, stay in a hotel, then ask him to run onto a rubble pile that he’s never seen before and he will search for someone he’s never met, sometimes amazes me.

Wags,

Robin and K9 Moe

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Emergency Responders General Preparedness Uncategorized

Search dogs in the world of disasters

Greetings to all,

As you think about disasters, being personally prepared is extremely important and I’m glad to see all the posts that are coming into the site. Keep in mind, many of the people you may deal with in disaster situations (including Katrina and tornadoes) are volunteers.

Many people do not realize it, but 95% of the search and rescue dog handlers out there are volunteers. They spend their own time and money training/certifying and even deploying to disasters. Only the federal FEMA teams and some of the state disaster teams have paid positions. However, you still only get paid for deployments, NOT for training.

This weekend, Dunder and I are off to some training and will be posting a few pictures next week of what we are doing. Dunder is a 16 month old yellow lab/golden retriever cross that was found in a shelter. We will be attending ‘drive’ training. (no he isn’t learning how to drive…he’s learning to want his toy more!) Basically, we are going to go play tug and let him bark at people. For us this is fun, for lots of other people they would find that annoying.

We do this type of training because a search dog’s job has to be fun for them, or they won’t do it well. Nintey percent of what I do is spend time trying to make the ‘training’ that Dunder and I do fun. It’s all a game to him with the biggest reward being that game of tug at the end. (I bet your boss wished you worked for something that cheap.)

Wags!

Robin and K9 Dunder (search dog in training)