Rumor Has It

I recently read a book of fiction that was loosely based around a search and rescue dog and his owner which led me to research this fascinating working canine further. The dog and owner team are called to natural disasters, building collapses, or any number of occurances where there may be trapped humans under rubble, trees, even water. They will find the living and the deceased, finding the deceased affects the dog in a negative manner. These dogs actually become very depressed and will remain so for days, if not weeks, if they continue to find more of the deceased than the living.

There are two types of search and rescue dog, one is the scenting and the other the trailing. The scent dog works of a target odor produced by a piece of clothing from the person of which they are searching. The sniff the air for skin cells that drop off of the person’s body. These cells float in the air or over the water allowing the dog to pick up the trail. The dog works off lead, sniffing the air, but is directed by the handler to work the area where the search and rescue should be concentrated. The team will spread out if and as needed. The scenting dog is best used on searches immediately, or within the first few days, after the disaster happens. Waiting too many days compromises the search as the skin cells will fall to the ground. Since these dogs scent the air, contamination is not a problem.

The other type is the trailing dog. They also use articles of clothing and skin cells, but they use the cells that have dropped to the ground. The best trailing dogs are known to be bloodhounds, not only because of their keen scense of smell, but their long ears that trail the ground. Their ears and folds of skin will pick up the  scent of the skin cells, trapping that scent, allowing the bloodhound to trail for weeks on end. A trailing dog is better able to track an old trail, but can be confused by contamination if too many people have tried to search the area. Contaimination can occur when the skin cells of others have also dropped, causing the dog to become confused. Given a good clean trail a bloodhound is an invaluable scenting dog in new or old searches.

These teams provide an invaluable tool to police agencies, disaster relief, and distressed families across the world. The majority of the time their work and time is volunteered. Their dedication to their work has to be a love of mankind, but I also beleive it is a love of man/woman and their best friend, their dog.

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!