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Disaster Canine Search Specialist

by Susann Brown

Disaster search canines are important assets for any Urban Search and Rescue team. These specialized search resources are uniquely qualified to locate victims of a disaster, some of whom may be deeply entombed in debris. Disaster canines must meet stringent selection and training criteria and must pass a national certification evaluation in order to meet deployability requirements.

Training these dogs requires a location that simulates the unique challenges of the different disaster environments. Disaster City® is one of the best, if not the best, site in the United States for canine disaster training. The site contains three different rubble piles, collapsed buildings and even a passenger train wreck. US&R canine teams from around the country have the opportunity to come to Disaster City® and practice their required skills. The agility field provides a variety of unique configurations that challenge beginners to advanced canines. Numerous victim hides, in collapsed buildings and on rubble piles, improve the canine’s ability to perform the required bark alert (to indicate location) on concealed victims. The mechanism to learn these skills and many more are available through TEEX US&R’s Disaster Canine Search Specialist course.

This five-day course introduces handlers to theories of canine behavior and training principles. It walks handlers through the training steps necessary to build a solid foundation in disaster search as well as provides beginning to advanced bark and search scenarios. The final training event is a mock search scenario where teams search all of Disaster City® for volunteer 'victims'. Search Managers are encouraged to attend this class along with their Canine Search Specialists because several of the classroom units address issues specifically for Search Managers. Managers discuss the working relationship between the Canine Search Specialists, the Search Managers and the rest of the US&R team.

In addition to classroom lectures and field training, one of the benefits of the Disaster Canine Search Specialist course is the networking opportunity with students from US&R teams across the US and internationally. The relationships built during the class often lead to long-term training support for this demanding process of training and certifying disaster canines.

View the upcoming schedule for Disaster Canine Search Specialist.

To view the Program of Instruction for this course, click here.

To view the Course Flyer, click here.

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