Speaker 1: Welcome to Brainstock, a production of iHeartRadio, Hey Brainstuff Lauren
Speaker 1: bogobaum here. In the wake of disasters like earthquakes, when
Speaker 1: people may be injured and trapped by debris, there are
Speaker 1: often international search and rescue efforts. Teams include structural engineers, doctors,
Speaker 1: logistics personnel, technical search specialists, and dogs. Today, let's talk
Speaker 1: about how search and rescue dogs and their human handlers
Speaker 1: trained to help these teams save lives. Experts estimate that
Speaker 1: a single search and rescue dog can search the same
Speaker 1: area as about fifty people on foot could, and in
Speaker 1: far less time. Time is always an issue in search
Speaker 1: and rescue. In an avalanche, for instance, statistics show that
Speaker 1: more than ninety percent of people buried in snow can
Speaker 1: be rescued alive if they're dug out within fifteen minutes. However,
Speaker 1: after forty five minutes, only twenty to thirty percent of
Speaker 1: victims will be found alive, and after two hours almost
Speaker 1: no one will. That means search and rescue dogs are
Speaker 1: invaluable in locating people alive when time is critical. A
Speaker 1: trained dog can locate a human being within a five
Speaker 1: hundred meter radius that's some sixteen hundred feet find a
Speaker 1: dead body underwater, or locate evidence like a human tooth
Speaker 1: or an article of clothing at crime scenes, all by
Speaker 1: focusing on the smell of a human being. We humans
Speaker 1: are smelly creatures. We're constantly shedding a combination of dead
Speaker 1: skin cells, molecules of hygiene products, dried sweat, the bacteria
Speaker 1: and fungi that live with us, and various hormones and enzymes.
Speaker 1: This combination makes up tiny flakes called rafts, which smell
Speaker 1: distinctly human. Everyone's skin rafts smell unique, which is how
Speaker 1: a search and rescue dog can smell an items of
Speaker 1: clothing and look specifically for the last person who wore it.
Speaker 1: While some dogs exhibit a stronger desire to track scent
Speaker 1: than others, every canine out there has a powerful sense
Speaker 1: of smell. Some handlers have a breed of choice, but
Speaker 1: any medium to large dog in good physical health, with
Speaker 1: decent intelligence, good listening skills, a non aggressive personality, and
Speaker 1: a strong play or prey drive that is an intense
Speaker 1: and enduring desire to retrieve a toy can potentially go
Speaker 1: into search and rescue. Search and rescue dogs need to
Speaker 1: be big enough to successfully navigate treacherous terrain and push
Speaker 1: debris out of the way, and yet small enough to
Speaker 1: transport easily. German Shepherds are a popular search and rescue breed.
Speaker 1: They're typically smart, obedient, and agile, and their double layered
Speaker 1: coat insulates against severe weather conditions. Hunting and herding dogs
Speaker 1: like labrador and Golden retrievers and border collies tend to
Speaker 1: be good at this work too, because they have a
Speaker 1: very strong prey drive. Many people consider bloodhounds to be
Speaker 1: the best breed for tracking. Their giant ears and facial
Speaker 1: folds collect and concentrate scent particles right at their nostrils,
Speaker 1: making their sense of smell extremely discerning. But not all
Speaker 1: search and rescue dogs perform the same type of searches.
Speaker 1: Some dogs are tracking or trailing dogs, and others are
Speaker 1: air sent or area search dogs. Tracking dogs work with
Speaker 1: their noses to the ground. They can follow a trail
Speaker 1: of human scent, typically heavy rafts that fall quickly to
Speaker 1: the ground or onto bushes, through any type of terrain.
Speaker 1: These dogs are not searching, they're following. Tracking dogs need
Speaker 1: a last scene starting point, an article with the person
Speaker 1: sent on it to work from, and an uncontaminated trail.
Speaker 1: They work best when called in to follow a person
Speaker 1: sent immediately after a disappearance, say that of a child
Speaker 1: from a school playground, before other search groups and law
Speaker 1: enforcement personnel contaminate the scent trail. Air scent dogs, on
Speaker 1: the other hand, work with their noses focused toward the air.
Speaker 1: They pick up human scent anywhere in the vicinity. They
Speaker 1: don't need a starting point where tracking dogs follow a
Speaker 1: scent trail. Air sent dogs pick up a smell carried
Speaker 1: in air currents and seek out its origin the point
Speaker 1: of greatest concentration. Air sent dogs might be called in
Speaker 1: to find a missing hiker located somewhere in a park,
Speaker 1: or someone trapped an avalanche or a collapsed building. Different
Speaker 1: air sent dogs can be trained with different specialties, like
Speaker 1: urban rescue or evidence finding. Dogs can also be trained
Speaker 1: to search specifically for human remains and even drowning victims.
Speaker 1: When a body is underwater, skin particles and decomposition gases
Speaker 1: rise to the surface, so dogs can smell a body
Speaker 1: even if it's completely immersed. Due to the movement of
Speaker 1: water currents, dogs can seldom pinpoint the exact location of
Speaker 1: a body. Instead, a more than one search and rescue
Speaker 1: team will search an area, and divers will use each
Speaker 1: dog's alert point, along with water current analysis, to estimate
Speaker 1: the most likely location of the body. No matter what
Speaker 1: their specialty, both search and rescue dogs and their handlers
Speaker 1: must train extensively. On average, a search and rescue handler
Speaker 1: spends about one thousand hours to become field ready. They
Speaker 1: learn how to properly train a dog to find an alert,
Speaker 1: and train themselves in things like land navigation, weather patterns,
Speaker 1: radio communications, map and compass skills, wilderness survival, advanced first aid,
Speaker 1: and various physical fitness certifications. Most search and rescue dogs
Speaker 1: live and train with their handler and will spend about
Speaker 1: six hundred hours to become field ready. Sometimes search and
Speaker 1: rescue associations adopt dogs from shelters to be trained at
Speaker 1: a special facility and then paired with a handler. The
Speaker 1: central job of any search and rescue dog is to
Speaker 1: find a human scent, that is, find it an alert
Speaker 1: to its location, no matter what weather conditions or other
Speaker 1: distractions there may be. Depending on the dog's specialty area,
Speaker 1: their core training may also include the recall, find or
Speaker 1: show me, in which they find an objective of a search,
Speaker 1: return to their handler, and lead the handler back to
Speaker 1: the objective, or what's called victim loyalty, in which the
Speaker 1: dog stays with a found person and alerts their handler
Speaker 1: by barking. The general approach to training a dog for
Speaker 1: search and rescue is no different from any other dog training.
Speaker 1: The first step is to figure out what reward the
Speaker 1: dog will work for, perhaps a treat or playtime with
Speaker 1: a favorite toy, and then always immediately reward the dog
Speaker 1: for correct behaviors. The training starts out with very simple
Speaker 1: tasks and gets progressively more complex as the dog completes
Speaker 1: each level. Obedience, focus, and confidence are crucial. Search and
Speaker 1: rescue dogs must be able to think for themselves, a
Speaker 1: working off leash and away from their handlers in chaotic conditions.
Speaker 1: The ideal search dog can solve problems on their own,
Speaker 1: but also always be aware of their handler. Search and
Speaker 1: rescue teams are on call all day, every day. Dogs
Speaker 1: often accompany their handlers to work and on vacation in
Speaker 1: case a call comes in from law enforcement authorities. Typically,
Speaker 1: a law enforcement unit will alert a search and rescue
Speaker 1: organization to a case, and the organization then alerts its
Speaker 1: team members. The case might be a missing child, a
Speaker 1: group of hikers who never arrived at their campsite, a
Speaker 1: collapsed building, an earthquake, or a new tip. In a
Speaker 1: crime investigation, the places a victim's body in a particular lake.
Speaker 1: The team loads up its equipment, which may include severe
Speaker 1: weather gear, ropes and harnesses, radios, compasses, maps, food, and water.
Speaker 1: Depending on the dog and handler's specialty, they have to
Speaker 1: be prepared to travel by helicopter or boat, or perhaps
Speaker 1: to hike and repel to an area. Once at the scene,
Speaker 1: the dog's training is fully tested. Distractions are everywhere a
Speaker 1: people in dogs, searching reporters, floodlights, bullhorns. The search and
Speaker 1: rescue unit leader is in charge, reporting to the head
Speaker 1: authority at the scene. That leader gives each dog and
Speaker 1: handler team a location to clear. If a dog shows
Speaker 1: interest in a particular spot but doesn't do a full alert,
Speaker 1: the handler will note the location. If the dog gives
Speaker 1: a full alert, everyone mobilizes while human searchers dig or
Speaker 1: dive or clear rebel to find the missing people. The
Speaker 1: dog in their handler may be off to the side,
Speaker 1: playing tug of war or whatever the dog's reward of choices,
Speaker 1: so that the dog knows that they won the game,
Speaker 1: even if the missing person turns out to be deceased,
Speaker 1: the handler will discreetly play with the dog. As long
Speaker 1: as search and rescue remains a game, the dog will
Speaker 1: happily do their job until the handler decides it's time
Speaker 1: for retirement. Yes, search and rescue dogs do retire, often
Speaker 1: when the physical rigors of the work start to get
Speaker 1: to them, when they're around eight to ten years old,
Speaker 1: depending on the dog and its specialty. Urban disaster work
Speaker 1: in particular is hard on dogs and handlers due to
Speaker 1: the physical and mental stress of dangerous, unstable terrain. In
Speaker 1: the saddest news you'll hear today, some of the three
Speaker 1: hundred dogs that assisted in the search following the collapse
Speaker 1: of the World Trade Center on nine to eleven became
Speaker 1: too depressed to continue working. So few people were found
Speaker 1: alive and there was such an overwhelming smell of death
Speaker 1: that the dogs were affected. When a search and rescue
Speaker 1: dog does retire, they usually live out their retirement with
Speaker 1: their handler. If the handler can't care for the dog,
Speaker 1: there are organizations that specialize in finding adoptive homes for retirees.
Speaker 1: In either case, the dog enjoys a life of fun,
Speaker 1: games and leisure, a much deserved reward for a career
Speaker 1: of fun games and public service. Today's episode is based
Speaker 1: on the article how search and rescue dogs work on
Speaker 1: HowStuffWorks dot com, written by Julia Layton and Sarah g Lyme.
Speaker 1: Brain Stuff is a production of iHeartRadio in partnership with
Speaker 1: how Stuffworks dot Com and is produced by Tyler Klang.
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