Search and rescue dogs

Dogs still are one of the best tools for any search and rescue team, despite all the technological and scientific advances.

Search and rescue dogs are able to save hundreds of human lives because of their powerful sense of smell, their exceptional hearing, a rigorous training and the amazing bond between them and their handlers.

However, not everything is joy in the world of search and rescue dogs. Although these canine specialists are positively trained, they might be retired before time because of physical fatigue and damages caused during their noble task.

In tragic situations, like the one happened on September 11, 2001, both the dogs and their guides got to undergo emotional problems because they were unable to find people alive. In the middle of death and desolation, dogs do not only feel bad because there's no reward, but they feel the pain, frustration and sadness of their guides and other members of the rescue team.

There are other situations, nevertheless, when the goal does not consist in finding people alive, but people who have passed away. These are the right situations to use cadaver dogs trained to find human remains. Although these dogs can't bring back a son to his mother, their work helps to solve crimes and to give honorable burials to those who had the misfortune to perish in a disaster.

Characteristics of search and rescue dogs

Although any healthy dog has a strong sense of smell, a search and rescue dog must fulfill some additional requirements.

Search and rescue dogs must be agile and resistant enough to deal with typical difficulties of search and rescue activities. That's why toy breeds are not common choices for such tasks.

On the other hand, these dogs must not be so big that its size makes the rescue task even more difficult. A big dog can become an additional difficulty when the team has to rappel down mountainsides or while traveling in small helicopters and boats.

That's the reason why giant breeds are uncommon in search and rescue teams. Nevertheless, the exception to this rule occurs when the dogs are required to pull people out of water. In this case, giant breeds like the Newfoundland are very useful.

In addition, search and rescue dogs must be exceptionally motivated to search during long time periods under the most unfavorable conditions.

Last, but not least, search and rescue dogs must be perfectly socialized to people and other animals. In addition, they must be accustomed to work under stress such as among crowds of people, when other animals are present, while there are strange and loud sounds, etc.

Specialties of search and rescue dogs

The two main specialties are: tracking dogs and air scent dogs.

- Tracking Dogs

Tracking dogs follow a lost person's path from a starting point to where the person is. These dogs are able to seek lost people because they are trained to discriminate human scents. In other words, they don't seek for any human scent, but for one particular scent.

There are two main types of tracking tasks: wilderness search and urban search.

Urban tracking is usually more difficult for the dogs because the tracks have every kind of odors, including other people scent, pets scent and other scents. In addition, odors don't last long on artificial surfaces like pavement. And, as if it wasn't difficult enough, there could be lots of distractions while the dog is tracking: several people walking around, other pets nearby, etc.

On the other hand, wilderness search seems to be more amicable to dogs because tracks tend to have less people's scent and natural surfaces retains odors for longer time. In addition, natural surfaces could provide dogs with a potential second source of information: the contact or disturbance odor. This is the scent of broken branches, squashed insects, etc.

Since these dogs discriminate odors, they need two things to begin tracking:

• A starting point, also known as the Point Last Seen (PLS)


• An uncontaminated odor sample

Usually, tracking dogs work on-leash (a 30-feet leash attached to a harness). However, on-leash work is not mandatory and some tracking dogs work off-leash.

- Air Scent Dogs

Air scent dogs are the best-known type of SAR dogs. They are used to find victims of avalanches and urban disasters, drowned people, human remains in crime scenes, etc.

Unlike tracking dogs, air scent ones seek in the surroundings for any human scent (except their guide's scent). Therefore, they are the best choice to locate buried people in avalanche and urban disaster scenarios.

Since they do not follow a track, air scent dogs don't search with their noses to the ground. Instead, they walk around scenting the air. Thus, these dogs are able to capture human scent present in air streams.

Experts believe that air scent dogs can locate victims because they follow a scent cone from its base to its vertex. Thus, these dogs just move from an area where the odor concentration is lower (the base of the scent cone) to an area of maximum odor concentration (the vertex of the scent cone).

Since these dogs don't discriminate human scents, they can mistakenly follow a non-victim's scent. To avoid such mistakes, the search area is usually divided in grids and each team (dog and handler) works on one square of that grid. There should be as less people as possible in the search area.

Air scent dogs need to work upwind, so it is common to start searching along a route that is perpendicular to wind direction. Thus, dogs can capture the victim's scent and determine where it comes from. Then, they can trace the scent to its source and, after locating the source, notify their handlers that someone has been found (yes, they really notify their handlers).

For more information visit SAR dog training.

Rodrigo Trigosso is a biologist and professional dog trainer. His website, the Dog Training Tutorial, provides objective and reliable information on dog training and behavior.