Unsung Heroes,
Or what we do and don’t know about rescue dogs
Evelina Rioukhina, UNECE
“He is your friend, your partner, your
defender, your dog. You are his
life, his love, his leader. He will be yours,
faithful and true, to the last beat of his
heart. You owe it to him to be worthy of
such devotion” – with these wonderful
words of an unknown author I would like
to begin my article about dogs which are
really ready to defend not only their owners,
but other people, often risking themselves.
These are rescue dogs, unsung
heroes, as they were called by the United
Nations General Secretary Mr. Kofi
Annan in his message for the 10th anniversary
of the International Organisation for
Rescue Dogs:
“When disaster strikes, the ability of the international
humanitarian community to mount an
effective response depends on many things: speed,
access, information and, perhaps, most of all,
squads of trained professionals ready to be
deployed to the scene.
Each relief mission has its unsung heroes.
Among them must be counted the rescue dogs
that, since the Second World War, have been using
their unique skills, in conjunction with the teams
mobilised by the international Search and Rescue
Advisory Group (INSARAG), to locate people
buried by earthquakes or missing from other
calamities, natural or man-made. Often venturing
into places considered too dangerous for human
beings, rescue dogs have played an invaluable
role in saving lives”.
This special recognition of the role of dogs,
naming them as heroes, along with people, is not
exaggerated and it fully justified. How many lives
have been saved by our four-legged friends in disasters,
such as earthquakes, avalanches, floods,
hurricanes, etc.
Dogs have been with humans since prehistoric
times. Dogs have been domesticated for most of
human history and have endeared themselves to
many over the years, performing various services
or playing various roles. They have pulled sleds
over snowy tracts. They have delivered messages,
herded sheep and cattle. Surprisingly enough, dogs
have served as a source of food, too. The ancient
Romans are said to have prized certain kinds of
dog stew. The Aztecs of ancient Mexico raised tiny
dogs, thought to be the forebears of the Chihuahua,
to feed the large carnivores in the private zoos of
the Aztec rulers. In the past dogs have even been
worshiped as gods. Recently, they have been used
in drug research, medical experimentation, and
space science. Russian scientists launched dogs
into space to test the ability of mammals to survive
the rigours of space travel before people were sent
up. (At best, you might have heard about two: Belka
and Strelka, the most successful launch of dogs by the
Russians. However, at least thirteen Russian dogs were
launched into orbit between November 1957 and
March 1961. By order of flight they were: Laika (Barker
in Russian), Bars (Panther or Lynx), Lisichka (Little
Fox), Belka (Squirrel), Strelka (Little Arrow), Pchelka
(Little Bee), Mushka (Little Fly), Damka (Little Lady),
Krasavka (Beauty), Chernushka (Blackie), Zvezdochka
(Little Star), Verterok or Veterok (Little Wind),
Ugolyok or Ugolek (Little Piece of Coal). Unfortunately,
not all flights ended successfully, and five of the dogs
died in flight: Laika, Bars, Lisichka, Pchelka, and
Mushka – comment by ER).
Dogs are trained as guard dogs in peacetime
by many countries. In the United States, for
example, because of their keen sense of smell,
dogs are sometimes used by police to track
down escaped prisoners. Enforcement agencies
also rely on the dog’s acute sense of smell
to uncover illegal drugs. And specially trained
dogs act as the “eyes” of the blind, guiding the
steps of their sightless masters around obstacles
and hazards. Europeans have been making
use of the dog’s incredible sense of smell for a
long time, primarily to search for victims
buried under masses of snow after an
avalanche. The St. Bernard is a symbol for
these life-saving good Samaritans. By the way,
the stories about remarkable ability to save, or
to rescue, or to defend have been recounted
about dogs who served admirably in war or who
risked their lives to save people in danger.
When Pompeii – the Roman community
destroyed by Mount Vesuvius in AD 79 – was
finally excavated, searchers found evidence of
a dog lying across a child, apparently trying to
protect the youngster.
Area Search Dogs were trained to find wounded
soldiers at the end of the 19th century and to
sound an alert by barking when they found a victim.
In Switzerland, however, it’s interesting to
note that pictures from 1903 show that locating a victim in an area search could also be indicated by
the dog rolling. This kind of search training took
place in various countries, and is documented in
countries such as Germany, Switzerland, Norway
and Sweden. Area Search Dogs were employed
during the First World War primarily by the German
Army. The dogs searched for and found
wounded soldiers that medics would then attend
to. This kind of search operation was employed by
the military of several counties. The evolution of
search dogs of this type continued in the years
between 1939-1945.
However, the dog is considered as a most
popular pet, and thus it plays a very important
role in the life of a man or of a family.
Usually, dogs have been considered as a part
of the family, or replace a family for older
people becoming a sort of companion for
them and representing a special therapy
against loneliness. It is interesting to note
that nowadays the role of dogs has become
even more important. It is not only a member
of the family, but there are more and more
cases where people (not only the elderly) are
opting for dog ownership in lieu of a family
or in lieu of having children.
Today, the dog’s altruistic qualities play a subordinate
role compared with its population numbers.
Dogs have become first and foremost our
social partner, they certainly fulfil many “useful”
tasks, but dogs are now rather an exception when
acting as a working aid specialised in specific
tasks. Today, sheep dogs, gun dogs, watchdogs, service
dogs and guide gods, as well as life-saving
dogs, form a minority among the number of our
four-legged friends. The special abilities of dogs in
providing us human beings with valuable help are
increasingly underestimated.
A lot more can be written about dogs, their role,
their race, their temperaments, breeding, etc. In
this particular article, however, I
would like to draw special attention
to their role as rescue heroes in disasters,
continuing my sequel on various
aspects and various players
when disaster occurs.
Already having discussed this
topic with Mr. Vladimir Sakharov,
Deputy Chief of the Emergency Services
Branch, Chief of the Joint
UNEP/OCHA Environment Unit,
UN Office for the Coordination of
Humanitarian Affairs, during my
interview with him (see UN Special
No. 647, January 2006), I decided not
to include the chapter about the
rescue dogs teams during disasters,
but to write a separate article on
that subject. As I have already mentioned
in my previous disasterrelated
articles, recent years have
unfortunately been full of tragic
events. Very often we have seen, usually on TV or
in press photos, dogs in the disaster areas rescuing
people. From the experience of Mr. V. Sakharov I
understood that this subject is more complicated
that one could imagine from what we see on TV or
read in the press. There are special rules and regulations
for special disaster teams, and only teams
that are well prepared (but not just anyone with a
trained dog) are able to really provide assistance
in the acute phase, when it is still possible, or
when still hope exists, to find people alive. Just
any trained dog, even a well trained dog with his
owner even with the best possible will, can only
provoke chaos and lose precious time, often counted
by hours and even minutes to safe lives. To be
able to present solid background material, I contacted
the International Rescue Dog Organisation,
and I am very grateful to its senior management
who send me a book with precious information
about the organisation and shared experience
and photos for our readers of UN Special.
The International Rescue Dog Organisation
(IRO in its abbreviated form) is the world-wide
union of all National Search and Rescue Dog
Related Organizations. The Organisation was
founded on 18th of May, 1993, is active world-wide
and has its headquarters in Austria. The IRO is a
charitable, non-profit organization. The IRO is dedicated
to assisting people in need, without regard
to their national origin, race, religion, political
views or ability to pay. The purpose of the National
Search and Rescue Dog Associations (NRO in its
abbreviated form) membership in the IRO is to protect
and preserve human life on an international
scale with all means at their disposal, whenever
and wherever possible. The IRO has adopted one
set of standards for the evaluation of dogs, dog-handlers,
and testing-related persons, and facilitates
worldwide coordination with the United Nations
Disaster Relief Coordinator (UNDRO), OCHA and
other organisations. Today the IRO has about 50
member organisations, such as REDOG in Switzerland,
which is one of the most successful organisations
nearly always the first to arrive at the scene of
a disaster (from the paper of Wolfgang Zörner), with
very well-trained dogs, and with almost the highest
rate of success due to the outstanding administrative
management of their deployment.
What does “well-trained dogs” mean in reality?
The idea of training dogs for rescue missions,
i.e. searching for missing persons
avalanched in the snow or buried in rubble,
struck years ago. At first it was spread among
military circles but later it was mostly spread in “civil cynology” all over the world. Its motto has
always been to make the best use of natures of “human’s best and oldest friend”, always ready
to help a human in great distress.
It has been proved in the highlands of Middle
Europe that a rescue dog can be the most efficient
and the most often used means for searching for
missing persons in the fields, forests, open country,
etc. The second most successful missions are
searching for people buried by avalanches, and
thirdly people buried in rubble. It is true that the
latter way of searching is not only the most difficult,
but it also takes much more time to reach its goal.
Apart from cynological attainments, some extra
knowledge is needed for this type of searching.
Since the IRO was set up in 1993, the rescue activity with dogs and
their handlers has been on the edge between sporting activity on one
hand and on the other already directed towards universal training of
dogs and their handlers. It was believed that those handlers and their
dogs who were on top of every year’s IRO World Championships were
also the most efficient at actual rescue missions, especially in the
case of searching for people buried in rubble. But it turns out that a
relatively small number of the most successful competitors at World
Championships are also the most efficient in actual rescue missions –
if they participate at all, partly due to the phenomenon of the socalled “disaster tourism” (see article on this topic in UNS 649, March
2006) which started to spread uncontrolled by the most demanding
rescue dog missions (for example Turkey I and II, Asian tsunami).
There is no doubt that such teams – handlers and their rescue dogs –
want to provide uncompromising help to persons buried in rubble,
but they were not trained properly enough for such work and were, in
fact, of no profit. Therefore, one of the most important decisions was
reached in IRO: to introduce into team training the mission readiness
test for disaster search dogs.
Just to give a tiny image of the kind of training, some extracts from the
Summary of IRO-R from the Rescue Dog Suitability Test:
Part A – Scent work – Adherence to the track Handler’s track about 600 paces, 30 minute old trail, the start will be indicated, two corners conforming to the terrain, 3 scent objects on the track, about the size of a shoe, a 10 metre leash may be used, time limit 15 minutes.
Part B – Obedience of Rescue Dog – Tracking test- Area test- Disaster test– exercises: off leash heeling, sit exercise, down stay with recall, stand stay with recall, retrieval on flat ground, retrieval over a slope, send out, laying down while distracted. General Rules: at the Judges discretion the obedience phase may be held in groups of up to three dogs. The dog must complete each phase swiftly and enthusiastically. In the start-position the dog must sit close to the Handler on his left side oriented directly forward, and the dog’s shoulder may not be further forward than the Handlers’ knee. The Judge has to give the command to start an exercise – all other manoeuvres such as turns, stops, pace, changes, etc., may be executed without any commands from the Judge. The Handler is allowed, however, to request such commands from the judge. When assuming the startposition from the sitting position, the dog may either go directly to the holder’s left side, or execute a tight clock-wise circle around him.
Rescue dog disaster test consists of: Scent work, Obedience; Dexterity.
General rules: Victims are to be hidden with no visual contact with or
physical access to the dog. Distractions include: smouldering fire, running
motors, hammering, drumming etc, as well as gun shots in the vicinity
of the rubble field. Prior to the search the handler is to inform the
Judge how the dog will indicate (by barking, Bringsel or recalling).
Search-ready dogs may be outfitted with I.D. jacket and/or a collar. Dogs
which indicate by “recalling” are to do so by running back and forth
between the victim and the holder on the most direct route, thereby leading
the holder to the victim. The handler may proceed from the starting
point only when permission is given by the Judge. The victims are to be
approx. 10 m apart and in position 15 minutes prior to the first search
exercise. Victim hiding places used by the preceding dog must be kept
open, they are to be alternated after every search. Used hiding places may
be reused. Immediately before and during the test at least three people
are to be actively crossing the rubble field.
Rescue dog avalanche test consists of 3 levels, e.g. level B, part A Scent
work: Intensity of Working and Directability of the dog, Conduct of the
handler, Avalanche Pieps location, Victim location, digging and barking,
object location. Time limit: 20 minutes maximum for the search, snowfield
at least 6000 sq. metres, 2 victims buried to a depth of 1 metre. 1 backpack
buried to a depth of 40 cm.
These are only several details among the whole range of demands
that are to be checked while preparing and training dogs for the rescue
missions. These and many other tests are included in the World
Championships, which in itself is a fascinating event. Please note that
this year the 12th IRO Rescue Dog World Championship will be held
from 19 to 25 June 2006 in Switzerland and those who are interested
can easily attend it.
For further information please consult the website, which is in German for the moment: http://www.iro-wm2006.ch/xml_1/internet/de/intro.cfm
It is clear from the above that no matter how well the dogs are trained,
or how fascinating the Championship can be or how high are the awards
the holder can receive, real life and the real disaster situations make
their own rules and corrections. What are the missions with rescue dogs
in real life? What does the rescue dog team on disaster mission mean in
reality?
Read the report on the most remarkable rescue dog missions in future
issues of UN Special.
(With my gratitude to the International Rescue Dogs Organisation,
and personally to Sirpa Pellikka, Deputy Spokesperson f
or Public Relations for the book and precious photos).
© 2006 UN Special |