Search and rescue
Dogs are valuable when it comes to search and rescue missions. The earliest record of dogs being used for search and rescue are from 1707, when monks from the hospice of the Great St Bernard Pass started training dogs to find travellers who got lost on their way to the hospice. During the Crimean war (1868-1870), ambulance dogs were used to find injured soldiers on the battlefield but it wasn’t until World War Two (WW II) that dogs were trained to find people trapped inside buildings, which had collapsed during the bombing raids in London.
Nowadays, search and rescue dog units are run by volunteers around the world, working closely with emergency services and law enforcement organisations.
Starting early
K9SARA-SA starts training dogs as early as eight-to ten-weeks-old. The dogs should not be older than a year because it takes about two years to train a canine team. They look their ability to play when evaluating a puppy or dog. All training is based on fun and positive reinforcement. You cannot force a dog to find someone or something; the dog is working for its reward, not out of love and concern of a person’s well-being. K9SARA-SA dogs are only trained to pick up live scent, so it will find any person alive or recently deceased in their allocated search area.
The association is in constant contact with similar teams and organisations in the United States and Canada, to exchange experiences and to discuss training and specific training issues. K9SARA-SA evaluates its dog teams (dog and the handlers) every two years to ensure peak fitness, high skill levels and the ability to deploy at a moment’s notice. These evaluations are based on assessments carried out by the American Rescue Dog Association (ARDA) on its own dog teams, as well as the US Federal Emergency Management Agency. K9SARA-SA is in the process of revamping its evaluation procedures to align with those of the International Rescuedog Organisation (IRO), an international standards and training body for search and rescue dogs, based in Europe.
K9SARA-SA’s dogs and handlers train for a wide variety of missions:
K9SARA-SA is a volunteer organisation training its own civilian dogs for search and rescue work. They have trained extensively with the Mountain Search and Rescue Team, the South African Air Force, the Off-Road Rescue Unit of the Four Wheel Drive Club, Urban Search and Rescue as well as other similar organisations. They are the preferred source of dogs and handlers for Rescue South Africa for foreign aid missions.
The organisation’s handlers supply all their own equipment, pay their own transport costs to training and rescues and put in a number of hours with various other organisations involved in search and rescue work, in order to keep all skills up to the highest standard. They get no government grants and either fund everything themselves or receive donations from the public.
If you would like to know more obout search and rescue or you’d like to be involved, please visit the K9SARA-SA website (http://www.k9sara-sa.co.za/)
Nowadays, search and rescue dog units are run by volunteers around the world, working closely with emergency services and law enforcement organisations.
Starting early
K9SARA-SA starts training dogs as early as eight-to ten-weeks-old. The dogs should not be older than a year because it takes about two years to train a canine team. They look their ability to play when evaluating a puppy or dog. All training is based on fun and positive reinforcement. You cannot force a dog to find someone or something; the dog is working for its reward, not out of love and concern of a person’s well-being. K9SARA-SA dogs are only trained to pick up live scent, so it will find any person alive or recently deceased in their allocated search area.
The association is in constant contact with similar teams and organisations in the United States and Canada, to exchange experiences and to discuss training and specific training issues. K9SARA-SA evaluates its dog teams (dog and the handlers) every two years to ensure peak fitness, high skill levels and the ability to deploy at a moment’s notice. These evaluations are based on assessments carried out by the American Rescue Dog Association (ARDA) on its own dog teams, as well as the US Federal Emergency Management Agency. K9SARA-SA is in the process of revamping its evaluation procedures to align with those of the International Rescuedog Organisation (IRO), an international standards and training body for search and rescue dogs, based in Europe.
K9SARA-SA’s dogs and handlers train for a wide variety of missions:
- Wilderness, mountainous and urban areas,
- Water search for recently drowned victims,
- Cave searches,
- Disaster search following natural or man-made disasters, such as earthquakes, floods, tornadoes, and
- Building collapses due to natural causes or explosions.
K9SARA-SA is a volunteer organisation training its own civilian dogs for search and rescue work. They have trained extensively with the Mountain Search and Rescue Team, the South African Air Force, the Off-Road Rescue Unit of the Four Wheel Drive Club, Urban Search and Rescue as well as other similar organisations. They are the preferred source of dogs and handlers for Rescue South Africa for foreign aid missions.
The organisation’s handlers supply all their own equipment, pay their own transport costs to training and rescues and put in a number of hours with various other organisations involved in search and rescue work, in order to keep all skills up to the highest standard. They get no government grants and either fund everything themselves or receive donations from the public.
If you would like to know more obout search and rescue or you’d like to be involved, please visit the K9SARA-SA website (http://www.k9sara-sa.co.za/)
