The mission of the search and rescue dog and handler is to find lost people, alive or deceased. The dog and handler function as a team, and spend a great deal of time training together to prepare. In most cases the team is part of a larger team to provide each dog and handler with the necessary help to become and stay mission ready.

Search and rescue handlers sometimes function as volunteers. In other cases they are part of professional Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), police or other governmental agencies.

Some of the agencies have certification tests. Other groups may not. High standards in the qualifications of search and rescue teams are essential. The scent changes quickly with time and is damaged when people and animals move around and over it.

A poorly qualified team reaching the scene first and working it improperly reduces the chances that a qualified team coming after them will be able to find the lost person. Anyone who offers search and rescue services needs to make sure their work meets proper standards, which includes passing appropriate certification tests.

Search Areas

Search and rescue dogs work in many different situations, because the dog is such a versatile creature and so trainable. The first on the scene for lost person searches are often police K-9 units trained to find and apprehend suspects. Contemporary K-9 teams are cross trained for multiple tasks, and as a result have saved many lives. They work in a wide variety of emergencies, from finding a wandering Alzheimer’s patient to searching in the aftermath of tornadoes, bombings, and earthquakes.

Ski resorts and other snowy locales often have avalanche dogs on duty or on call. These are search and rescue dogs especially trained to find people buried under snow. Their practice sessions include burying volunteers in snow caves so the dogs can find them and be rewarded. Handlers have to learn survival tactics for this environment. It won’t do to send out rescuers who will have to be rescued!

Any wilderness setting may require search and rescue dog teams to locate lost people who came to the area for recreation or because they live there, and are unable to get themselves back to safety. Here, too, handlers must know the appropriate survival skills for the environment.

Disasters such as earthquakes, tornadoes, and explosions create rubble that has to be searched for lost people. Moving all of it in time to find the people still alive is often impossible, and moving it the wrong way can cause unnecessary deaths. Dogs are essential for searching in some of these settings.

Sadly, there is a need for dogs specially trained to find lost people who have died. Such dogs can locate bodies buried in the ground, under water or in other places that would be impossible to adequately search without the help of the search and rescue team trained in cadaver work. This sad duty can bring peace to a family who needs to know what happened to a loved one. It is sad for the dogs, too. Handlers make sure the dogs know their work is appreciated even in the absence of the jubilant response that happens when a dog finds a live person.

Volunteer Commitment

Volunteers who serve in search and rescue work make a strong commitment that often affects their work and family lives. It takes time and travel to keep up their training and certification testing in order to remain mission ready. It often means lost income.

Volunteers with employers need understanding ones who will allow them the time off for training as well as search missions. Training can be scheduled, but missions are emergencies that require being able to take off without notice.

For every mission that results in an exciting and rewarding find, a volunteer puts in many sessions of training, practice, certification testing with the dog, and preparation as the human part of the team. This part of search and rescue work doesn’t make the news, but it’s the only way a team can be prepared. Besides dog training, the volunteer must learn and maintain survival skills and certifications that include first aid training and other preparation to be the first person in position to save the life of an injured person.

Proper organization of a search is vital, too, and this task may fall to a volunteer. Mastery of this ability for the search and rescue dog teams takes a great deal of study and a variety of skills, including managing people to coordinate searchers with many different tasks and points of view.

The volunteer will have considerable expense, even if donations are available to provide some help. The handler and dog need special equipment, and it must be the right equipment in good, safe condition. Travel may be partly provided, but certainly not all trips to practices and tests.

Because search and rescue dogs commonly experience injuries, the handler is likely to be out extra money for veterinary expenses. The handler can also be injured, resulting in more time lost from work and money needed for medical treatment.

People who participate in search and rescue with their dogs do require dogs, but they are people who would typically have dogs anyway, so this is not really an extra expense. Participation in search and rescue work with a dog is a lot more expensive and demanding than most other dog pursuits, though.

Dog Selection

Search and rescue handlers can endlessly discuss dog selection. Most of the work is done off-leash, which leads to use of sporting and herding breeds whose breeding predisposes them to do well in off-leash training. Some of the working breeds excel as search and rescue dogs, too. Search work can also be done with dogs on-lead, sometimes the case with police K-9 units and with Bloodhounds.

The breed makes a difference in how the dog will be trained. It also makes a difference in what the dog will be able to do and where the dog will be able to work. The dog built to work at higher temperatures may not be able to work for long periods in snow, and vice versa. Though most search and rescue dogs are large, small ones can get into tighter spaces. Such spaces are increasingly common in disasters that involve collapsed buildings.

As with other dog work, the right match between dog and handler is a large part of success. The specific dog also must be physically and mentally sound and able to hold up long enough to justify the time and money that will go into training. Note that it won’t be only the handler’s time and money, but also donations of time by other volunteers, the time of professionals, and money from various sources. It’s also most humane to work with a dog who is put together for the work, so the dog will enjoy it rather than suffering physical or mental pain from it.

The Job

Search and rescue dogs and their handlers must be able to safely and calmly travel to the search site. This may mean something as dramatic as riding in a helicopter and being lowered from one. When around other people and dogs, both members of the team must be able to conduct themselves courteously and safely.

The skills for searching include tracking, trailing, air scenting (most dogs learn more than one style; all learn at least one), and the ability to maneuver into position to do the job. Search and rescue dogs need to be agile, and much of the training includes working on obstacle equipment and real-life obstacles such as rubble piles.

Search and rescue dogs cannot chase wildlife or stray dogs while they are working. They must be steady to loud noises that would scare many other dogs. This is partly a matter of training, partly a matter of getting the dogs used to situations, and partly choosing a dog with the right genetics. Fear of loud noises is to some extent inherited, and temperament testing includes checking for this trait.

Needed: Qualified Teams

Disasters requiring search and rescue teams need more of them. Not only are more dogs and handlers needed, but more training, too. Some of the responders have not been adequately prepared, and in spite of doing their best may have made things harder for those who were qualified.

With more mission ready teams, people have a better chance of being found in time to survive. The situation also becomes less dangerous for the search and rescue teams, because each team has a better chance of getting adequate rest so that a dog won’t be completely ruined by the search. Handlers have to be willing to make this sacrifice, but it is a sad loss, tragic if it could have been avoided.

Search and rescue dogs and their handlers save not only the people they find, but also the humans who would otherwise have had to place themselves at much greater risk in the search. The dogs can greatly narrow the search and make the impossible into the possible. Search and rescue teams who do the work to properly qualify themselves and then answer the calls to go out on missions are true heroes. What would we do without them?

If this work appeals to you, seek out people in your area who are involved. You don’t even have to have a dog to be of service in search and rescue work. There are lots of ways to help, including letting the dogs find you in practice sessions, setting up and taking down obstacles and rubble piles, helping with communications, and doing paperwork for the team. You definitely won’t be bored!