Search and Rescue dogs

desert rat · February 22, 2007, 07:56:28 PM

Is there such a thing as CAP search and rescue dog teams?

Al Sayre · February 22, 2007, 08:08:39 PM

I know a CAP officer in Washington State who has SAR dogs, but I don't believe he uses them in CAP. They may also have some in Alaska...

Eclipse · February 22, 2007, 08:30:02 PM

No, and the GT tasking related to Canine teams can be summed up in one sentence:

"Stay away from the dogs..."

davedove · February 22, 2007, 08:40:20 PM

Quote from: Eclipse on February 22, 2007, 08:30:02 PM
No, and the GT tasking related to Canine teams can be summed up in one sentence:

"Stay away from the dogs..."

Canine use is one of the specialized skills allowed with written wing approval. That being said, any canine teams are probably employed elsewhere.

Matt · February 22, 2007, 09:30:57 PM

Quote from: Eclipse on February 22, 2007, 08:30:02 PM
No, and the GT tasking related to Canine teams can be summed up in one sentence:

"Stay away from the dogs..."

I have to respectfully disagree... We play with dogs on a semi-regular basis, no they are not internal to the organization, however, we do have members who double as members of P&P.

I think from the stand point of being GTL it is good to have experience with dogs and how to work with them in case the time may arise. As there are special types of K9 SAR dogs, different methods are used, and I do advocate that good education on them is quite useful in the instances of some searches...

DNall · February 22, 2007, 10:04:44 PM

I've heard of it before inside of CAP, but never seen it. We have a couple out here that run some bloodhounds I've worked with before on searches. If a CAP member does have such a resource then they should immedeatly contact their Wg CC w/ a copy of that reg & request written permission to use them within CAP for training & SaR purposes. Any Wg/CC would realize how huge that would be to get additional missions for CAP.

This would be out of regs though right? Dang-it!

IronRangerMN · March 27, 2007, 02:55:51 AM

When our Sq had the best unit and GT in the country, they had 2 search dogs they used on there GT missions. They belonged to a SM, and they used them on there searches and trained with them. Search dogs are a great asset in a search, I've seen them in action and its one of the many new "way of the future" in GT. Ive just very recently made a friend or 2 in a SAR dogs unit. Turns out, one of them needs to be qual'd with her dog and they all love training.

so i thought, wow, one of them lives in my hometown, Sweet. We were at a GTL course by the way. But we train all the time and to do sum merged training will be perfect!!! get involved with dog teams

Desert Dawg · April 01, 2007, 05:57:10 PM

I have been a dog handler for the past 25yrs. I have handled all types of dogs and several breeds. There are several ways to train a search and rescue dog. Most people think of tracking/trailing dogs that follow the person foot step by foot step. This is alright if you know where the lost party started from and possibly have a scent article to start with. Most dogs today are trained in air scenting. That is get the scent from the circulating air. You can search a larger area faster this way.

Just because you don't have a dog in your squadron, doesn't mean you will not work with another organization on a search that does have one. Familiarize yourself with search dog deployment and use. There is an excellent power point presentation on e-members in reference to this.

The main thing to remember is to not approach a working dog with out permission of the handler. Do not pet a working dog with out permission of the handler. A lot of these dogs are dual purpose and may not be real friendly. My current partner is dual purpose malinois and will take your hand off. Never feed anything to a working dog with out the permission of the handler. A few years back I was on a search for a lost child and we were transported in by helicopter. Just prior to our arrival the child was found,and I went with the team to carry her back. I made the mistake of leaving my dog tied up to a near by tree, one of the well meaning crew members fed him two bean burritos. Lets just say it was a long stinky way back home.

Contact your local K-9 SAR team and volunteer to help with the training, they are always looking for new victims.

If you need any information on k-9 teams or info for training your team to work with K-9 teams just let me know.

Ken Smith 1Lt. CAP
Neotoma Comp. Squadron 109

floridacyclist · April 02, 2007, 03:29:12 AM

Funny this topic just came up.....we just spent Saturday evening working with SE K-9 SAR. They are training us how to flank for them (trail the handler and dog, working the compass, radio etc) and helping us get our SARTECH rating, and we are providing warm bodies that already have some level of training. They also like being able to work with the kids since they're not allowed to have minors as members of their group.

On the flip side, they are coordinating a training event around bringing the dogs out to familiarize themselves with the airplane in case they ever have to get somewhere in a hurry. They were on standby for the missing Scout in NC, but it was too far to drive; Pat was pretty excited when I pointed out that we could have gotten a team there in 4 hrs or so vs 12 hours of driving.

Stonewall · April 05, 2007, 04:48:48 AM

Well, you'd think my dog was a CAP SAR Dog, but I actually threw this thing together because we were doing a 3 day exercise on an Army base where we couldn't bring dogs unless they were "working dogs". Well, my wife was away with the Guard and it was just me and Scout so I had no choice, she had to come...

She enjoyed the heck out of the weekend and sure as heck looked good.