Dogs for Disaster Management
Disaster dogs are used to locate victims of catastrophic or mass-casualty events (eg, earthquakes, landslides, building collapses, aviation incidents to disaster management.
Many disaster dogs in the US are trained to meet the Federal Emergency Management Agency K9 standards for domestic or international deployment; advanced agility and off-lead training are prerequisites reflecting the nature of these dogs’ application.
Disaster dogs rely primarily on air scent, and may be limited in mass-casualty events by their inability to differentiate between survivors and recently-deceased victims.
Search and Rescue Dog Training event for Disaster Situations
Training the handler
For the handler (again, based on wilderness air scenting experience), wilderness orienteering and wilderness self-sufficiency/survival are essential training skills.
Dog handling skills must also be learned during training (eg, recognizing working v. distracted behaviors, differentiating between alerts and finds, and positioning the dog to maximize terrain coverage).
Of primary importance is the handler’s ability to understand how the dog is working at any point in time, for which the handler will require detailed and intimate understanding of scent theory.
Air scenting dogs are trained to find (ie, follow human scent to its source, be it human or traces of a human), but this basic process has been elaborated and improved upon: dogs now are commonly also trained in recall/refind and indication.
The entire process may begin with the command “Go find!”, indicating that the dog is to search until the find is made.
After the find, the dog can be trained to return to the handler (recall), perform a trained indication (often a bark coupled with some form of meaningful touching of the handler, such as a paw placed on the handler’s leg or a “sit-stay” at the handler’s feet), and return to the subject (refined, sometimes cued with the “Show me!” command).
Once the handler is with the subject, the dog is released (and during training, rewarded).
Dogs are trained in the recall/refind shuttle between the handler and the source until the handler and subject are within sight (this builds on the dog’s natural pack instinct).
This is of greatest use in situations where the dog may be ranging from the handler (wilderness air scenting) or the subject may be concealed or out of sight (eg. at night, hidden in brush), but is less useful for dogs trained for close-quarters searches (eg. cadaver and drowning dogs).
During training, the handler must learn to recognize this behavior without cueing the dog (lest the dog learn to “indicate” only when the handler subconsciously prompts him to, a common mistake during the training process), and can complicate early training sessions if the handler (who is learning to read the dog) fails to reward a successful find appropriately because she failed to recognize the dog’s natural indication.
Thus it is important to train with those having more experience. On scene, the handler must pay constant close attention to the dog, which may be difficult or dangerous in commonly encountered search scenarios (eg. night, hazardous terrain, low-visibility, while navigating off-trail, when fatigued or distracted).
Handlers using dogs trained to a natural indication risk missing finds outside of training scenarios, mistaking alerts for finds, or missing finds because a natural indication was not noticed or recognized, however they have the advantage in that as the dog tires or becomes distracted they will still exercise the natural behavior while they may not follow up with the trained response.
The trained indication involves an additional step in the search-find process; the dog is taught to perform a clearly recognizable behavior only upon finding the subject.
For example, the dog may return to the handler and sit, perform a jump up, bark (either at the handler or near the subject), or grab a decoy or bringsel.
Addition of this extra step during training is easily accomplished, has the benefit of being easily recognizable under any circumstance, and can be easily differentiated from an alert.
Often, training the dog to perform a specific behavior is easier and more reliable than training handlers to consistently and reliably read a dog’s “natural” indication.
This takes less training on the part of the handler and more on the part of the dog.
An example of a trained response is that, when a distant find has been made, the dog can be taught to repeatedly shuttle between the subject and handler using a refind-return-indicate-refind sequence.
When using a trained indication, the behavior must be well-ingrained in the search-find-recall process that a fatigued dog does not skip it.
Distractions are still a problem and extensive training must be done to avoid this less something as simple as a loud noise or animal prevent the lost person from being found.
Advanced dogs can be trained to give different indications depending upon the nature of the find: for example, a jump-up for a live air scent find and a sit for cadaver.
A potential problem with this method is that poorly-trained dogs (or those who have been rushed through training) can become distracted before performing the alert.
An alert by an airscenting dog can be distinct from an indication (although for a dog that uses a natural indication, the two may not be distinguishable).
Both involve being able to read the dog’s behavior. Alerts are instances where an airscenting dog detects human scent but has not located the subject or source.
Alerts can be recognized by a change in the dog’s behavior pointing, following a scent upwind, circling, or following scent up terrain or obstructions, for example.
Recognizing an alert is important for any experienced handler, as the location of alerts along with wind conditions, environmental conditions, and terrain can be used by the handler to alter the search strategy.
Regardless of whether the dog is trained to perform an indication on find, or whether the handler uses a natural indication on find, all handlers must be able to recognize an alert in order to effectively deploy their dog.
Inexperienced handlers who use trained indications may have difficulty recognizing alerts, while handlers who rely on a natural indication may not be able to differentiate an alert from an indication (since the behaviors are essentially the same).
Training techniques for search dogs are not written in stone. There are many different techniques for training a dog for this type of work.
Anyone interested in training a search dog should contact a reputable search dog organization and discuss the training methods used.
Training for Disaster Dogs
Training is a time-consuming and comprehensive process for both the dog and the handler.
For the dog, training is best begun early in life (upon acquisition of a suitable puppy, 8–10 weeks) for deployment of the dog in 12–18 months and retirement at 5–10 years, depending on the breed and individual dog.
Obedience training is essential for the dog’s safety, order at staging areas, and to maintain professionalism in law enforcement and the public audience.
Socialisation and handler-canine bonding are especially important for air scenting dogs. Basic agility training is necessary, and advanced training may pay off unexpectedly.
Scent training should be initiated early using a variety of methods and is often best accomplished by working with an experienced, well-established local training group that has a track record of working with local or state law enforcement.
For puppies, expect to train obedience, socialization, and agility daily 2-5 times for 10 up to 60 minutes, and scent training 3-7 times per week for 5–30 minutes.
As the dog’s abilities improve, daily obedience training continues, with impromptu or planned agility and socialization sessions.
Scent training frequency decreases (3-5 times/week) but duration increases (20–60 minutes per session). Search-ready dogs need once-weekly training sessions (4–8 hours) along with frequent focus sessions (5–60 minutes, 3 or more times per week).
Training outside the dog’s primary focus (eg. teaching an air scenting dog scent discrimination, cadaver, or avalanche techniques) should be done cautiously and only once the dog reliably performs in his primary training area.
Usually training starts as a game played with puppies, starting with simple reward-based training (i.e. puppy is given a treat or allowed to play with a toy upon showing a simple skill such as retrieving the toy and bringing it back to the trainer) and expanding outward to “games” with more specific job skills (i.e. a well-loved toy is scented with the desired scent to find; when puppy finds the toy, he/she is allowed to play with the toy; later, scent and toy are separated so that puppy will search for the scent and is rewarded with the toy afterward).
A more commonly used approach is to base training on herding, prey/pursuit, and pack instincts: initial training for puppies usually involves run-away games where the handler runs from the puppy and hides a short distance away. Basic instincts drive the puppy to locate the subject, initially by sight but with the association of human scent.
To advance this training, the subject hides further away or longer times pass between departure of the subject and release of the dog.
The dog is forced to rely increasingly on scent to locate the subject.
Eventually, the dog can be transitioned to search without seeing the subject depart by simply giving the command used when he’s released during basic runaway training.
During all stages, finding the subject is reinforced by multiple means (praise, play or food treats).
