AUSTRALIAN SWISS SEARCH DOG ASSOCIATION INC
SEARCH DOGS, A SHORT HISTORY
Dogs have served man in a myriad ways over the centuries.
They have become valuable partners in the man/ dog relationship and countless
people owe their lives to the dog’s scenting capacity. It is this natural
scenting skill that has been most exploited to serve mankind. As a predator, the
dog in his wild state (e.g. wolf), uses his nose to hunt, locate and track down
prey in order to survive. By observing the behaviour of wild canids, specific
training has been developed that utilises the dog’s scenting ability and so they
have come into their own as trackers, police dogs tracking down criminals, drug
detection dogs and search and rescue dogs to name just a few.
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| 'People hide in such odd places' - Afra |
Tight spaces are no problem - Olga |
Search and rescue dogs have
a long history and records show that avalanche dogs for instance were used by
monks on the St Bernhard Pass, Switzerland as early as the 1500s. This is the
birthplace of the St Bernhard Dog breed, the most famous of them being Barry who
in the years 1800 to 1812 rescued 40 persons from certain death in the deep
winter snows of the pass.
The modern search and rescue dog has many functions such as area search –
searching for persons missing in the wilderness (either air scenting off-lead or
tracking on a long lead), water search, avalanche search, cadaver search –
searching for bodies and body parts, and disaster search – locating victims
buried under the rubble of collapsed buildings, e.g. earthquakes.
Despite our high tech world today, particularly in disaster search, the dog’s
nose has yet to be surpassed by any technical device. The well trained disaster
search dog tested to a high standard is an indispensable specialist search
resource capable of locating the human scent of victims emanating from deep
within the rubble. Without a trained dog to indicate the human scent of a
victim, it is very difficult for rescue personnel to know where to start
excavating and precious time may well be lost in trying to find victims.
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| 'If I work hard enough, I'll get to that
victim yet.' - Afra |
'I know you are in there somewhere' - Jochen |
ASSDA
Whilst Europe and later America, has a long history of
utilising dogs in searches, this form of dog work is fairly new to Australia.
The Australian Swiss Search Dog Association Inc (ASSDA)
www.assda-sardogs.org was founded in
1995 for the purpose of training, testing and making available search dog teams
to user agencies such as the police and the fire brigades.
In the early years, ASSDA focused on training and testing its teams to search
for persons missing in the bush. Several winters were also spent at Falls Creek
training teams to search for persons buried under snow or lost in snow
conditions. During the last five years the focus has been, and will continue to
be, on training teams to search for victims buried under the rubble of collapsed
buildings.
To ensure a high standard in training and testing, ASSDA became a partner
organisation of REDOG www.redog.ch ,
Switzerland. REDOG trainers and assessors regularly visit Australia holding
extensive and intensive workshops as well as testing those teams that have
reached the requisite standard. In addition, ASSDA instructors also regularly
fly to Switzerland to attend REDOG seminars, workshops and courses there. Most
recently, in September/October 2005, three ASSDA members travelled to
Switzerland to attend the Canine Disaster Search Assessor’s course as well as
the Equipe Leader course.
ASSDA has members in four states, Victoria, South Australia, Queensland and ACT.
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| Having fun abseiling - Achim and Elke |
ASSDA's first three internationally qualified
disaster search dog teams |
TYPES OF DOGS SUITABLE FOR SEARCH AND RESCUE
The German Shepherd Dog is well known to be the best all
round working dog breed successfully fulfilling many functions. Certainly, the
well bred and well trained German Shepherd distinguishes himself as a search and
rescue dog and this breed predominates in our Victorian group. However, the
Golden Retrievers, Labradors and Border Collies are amongst the most popular and
successful breeds as search dogs with many other breeds also represented. Even
the humble cross breed can be very suitable.
The main criteria for a search dog is a very high play/ prey drive, a good,
strong bark, a capacity to play with other people, and a sound and stable
temperament. The dog should not be easily frightened and if it does get a
fright, it should be able to recover quickly. In addition, the dog must be
capable of negotiating unstable terrain confidently. It must also be able to
work independently and away from the handler and yet remain obedient, the reason
being that the rubble may be too unstable for a person to enter but sufficiently
safe for the dog. Dog and handler must be able to work as a TEAM regardless of
the conditions. In fact, the more difficult the conditions, the more critical it
is that the two can work as a team to remain effective.
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| ASSDA teams at the Labyrinth 2003
exercise |
Tunnel search can be such dirty work - Zelda and
Thombie |
TRAINING
Our dogs are first and foremost companions and always
remain with their handler. Search and rescue is an activity the handler wants to
take part in as a volunteer, but in partnership with his dog. So in search and
rescue, we always talk of the TEAM, dog/ handler and it is the team that is
trained and tested. Should an operational search dog be sold, it is no longer
operational. The new owner would have to undergo training and testing with the
dog to demonstrate that they too are now a team. Therefore, no search and rescue
titles appear on a dog’s pedigree.
Training takes a minimum of three years and so a high degree of commitment and a
capacity to stay for the long haul are handler requirements. In addition,
handlers must be able to go into tight, dark places without panicking, be able
to play victim by being ‘buried’ for lengthy periods, be able to interact with
other members’ dogs effectively and have the capacity and desire to increase
their kynological knowledge. In addition, the SAR dog handler should see himself
as an unpaid professional.
We use motivational training and drive building to train our dogs. They want to
search because we make it such fun for them. On finding the ‘victim’, their
reward is either a piece of food from the victim or the victim plays tug-of-war
with the dog with their favourite toy.
Dogs are taught basic obedience such as heeling on and off-lead, the recall, the
send-away with an emergency stop and the ‘stay’ exercises. The dogs learn to
negotiate a diverse range of obstacles slowly and carefully, they are taught
detaching – being able to leave the handler to designated places, the alert -
barking and digging at the scent source to tell the handler that he has detected
human scent, and to search a rubble pile independently for the scent of buried
victims. Dogs need to develop both mental and physical endurance.
REWARDS
Although canine search work is very time consuming and
rigorous, the rewards are great. Once a handler has taken his or her dog to the
required level successfully, the bond that has developed between them surpasses
almost any other relationship one can have with a dog. By training their dog to
successfully search in any of the modalities mentioned, the handler experiences
the essence of what man’s best friend has to offer - trust, loyalty,
companionship and cooperation.
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| Basic alert training - Afra |
Team work - Peter and Olga |
Elke Effler
President
Australian Swiss Search Dog Association Inc.
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