How To Decide If You Should Enroll Yourself and Your Dog in Search and Rescue Training

Almost every day over the last 22 years, I've received a telephone call or email from someone interested in joining K-9 Search and Rescue. They want to know who to contact in their home area. What's involved in training a K-9 for SAR (search and rescue) work. And what's the cost in time and money going to be.

My normal response is as follows:

1. I always ask if the dog partner, (we don't call them dog owners anymore...it's a partnership) or anyone in their family is a cigarette smoker. If they say, "yes", I tell them to call me back when they quit. Nicotine desensitizes the dog's nose and exposes the search dog and other folks around the smoker to numerous cancer causing poisons. Not only do we need a healthy search dog, but also a healthy search dog handler. Also, it's a safety hazard to have someone working next to you in a disaster that smokes. The last thing we need is anyone getting stressed out and lighting up. They could blow us up. There are numerous toxic spills, hazmat situations, and gas leaks after a major disaster. Any kind of open flame, lighter, or cigarette could cause a huge explosion and fire. So if you smoke, quit. If you decide not to quit, have a nice day.
2. Once we get past the first criteria, I ask them, "Why do you want to join K-9 SAR"? I want to make sure they understand it's for the right reasons. They must understand that in 99% of the missing human cases, the dog handler must pay for his or her own search dog training, their own equipment, take time off work and away from the family to train, test, and work SAR operations. Normally you will never get reimbursed for any of your expenses. Travel, motel, fuel, meals, equipment, etc. It does cost between $2,000 and $6,000 to train and have on hand the equipment you will need to work SAR.
3. There are a lot of dangers involved. I've heard of handlers and their dogs falling to their deaths, breaking arms and legs, getting shot, and getting attacked by other aggressive dogs and stupid people. I've been attacked by Pit Bulls and Mastiff's 65 times during urban searches. Usually I can stop the attack with bear mace, or my stun gun. There was one time I had to physically shoot the pit bull and kill it to stop the attack. I've been shot at 3 times during searches by drunken deer hunters. (Stupid people as I call them). Then there's the danger of falling debris during an aftershock from a quake, falling rocks and trees during heavy rains and winds, poisonous snakes, predatory wildlife such as bears, cougars, and gators, etc.
4. You must understand there's a lot of ugly SAR politics. I worked Mountain Rescue and Coordinated Search and Rescue as a Deputy Sheriff for 14 years. For the last 22 years I've worked K-9's search dogs all over the world. I've been bad mouthed by every search dog team in the USA. Why? Jealousy. Stupidity and ugly politics. Not once has any one of them been able to provide us with any documentation of wrong doing. You'll have to grow a thick skin and make sure you keep focused on why you are doing Search and Rescue. Nothing else matters.

   I work SAR because I enjoy helping our two and four legged friends during their time of need. I've performed over 6,000 missions around the world. My credibility has held up in every courtroom I've been in to give expert testimony on search dogs, scent, scent evidence and training, testing, and actual working of a search dog.

   Then you have the emotional side of search and rescue. 97% of the people I find are dead. Some of these scenes can get pretty ugly. Even for a seasoned professional like myself, I've had to go to counseling to deal with the death that I've seen. In the 1999 Turkish earthquake I saw over 30,000 men, women, and children lying dead in the rubble. Believe me, it does affect you.

5. Once you get past the first few issues, then you need to decide if you and your dog has what it takes physically to perform search and rescue. Can you strap on a 45 lb search pack and head out into the freezing cold snow with skis or snow shoes and climb 3,000' up a mountain to go look for a missing climber, hiker, or skier? Can you crash through the poison oak, stinging nettles, mosquitoes, swarms of bees, and thick woods during the pouring down rain, and crawl through the mud to find a lost child or DRUNK DEER HUNTER?

   If the answer is yes, then you have to make sure your dog is social and friends with not only humans, but other dogs. If it's healthy, in good shape, doesn't have hip problems, and is willing to learn, listen, and work with you as a team member, then start your training. You also need to make sure you are ready to listen to your dog as well. Half the learning phase for all search dog handlers is learning to "TRUST YOUR DOG".

   Oh by the way, the training generally takes about two years before you and your dog are ready. So I suggest you start with a younger dog. Any breed of dog can do SAR work. The larger dogs I find are great for Wilderness and Avalanche work. The medium to small sized dogs do better in disaster and urban work. (Confined space rescue). Any dog can sit on the bow of a boat and smell for dead bodies. So it's up to you, your dog, your training and your focus on what's important on whether you will be successful or not.

6. Select the right search dog team for you and your dog. There are hundreds of search dog teams in the USA and Canada. I strongly suggest you visit three or four different teams and watch them train, test, and work their search dogs and handlers. Then decide on which one you wish to train with.

Good Luck.