Culture & History

Search and rescue dogs are specially trained canines that find survivors after disasters or locate people lost in the wilderness. But how are they trained? And how do they manage to find people?

How search and rescue dogs find people

Dogs have an excellent sense of smell due to the extremely high number of olfactory receptors in their noses – the neurons that detect odours. Humans have roughly six million of these receptors but dogs have up to 300 million, nearly 5000% more. A dog’s nose also has the ability to separate odours, allowing them to identify a specific smell amongst a range of others.

This keen sense of smell can be honed through training to identify human scent and breath. This is how search and rescue (SAR) dogs are able to locate earthquake survivors under rumble. They are also trained to follow ‘ground disturbances’ where they follow footprints and scent traces which are how they’re able to track missing

Therapy dogs, also referred to as comfort dogs, help support a person’s general wellbeing by providing attention and comfort. Therapy dogs are both used by individuals and in professional settings like children’s hospitals, nursing homes and schools, to give ongoing mental health support.

The support therapy dogs offer patients has proven results in reducing a range of psychological health issues such as stress, anxiety or depression. They’ve also shown to aid a patient’s recovery after surgery or a serious accident. 

Duties

In the UK there is no register or certification process for therapy dogs. But to be effective in their role of providing emotional support the dogs need to be very well trained. Therapy dogs must:

• Be friendly
• Be highly obedient
• Be social and like being around strangers
• Remain calm in new or hectic and stressful situations
• Not get easily distracted
• Enjoy

Guide dogs assist people who are blind or vision impaired to walk safely between destinations they been trained to go. Qualified guide dogs have to be extremely well-behaved, smart, obedient, well socialised, and always able to perform their duties in any given situation.

Labradors, Golden Retrievers and German Shepherds are the most common pure breeds for guide dogs. The Guide Dogs for the Blind Association state that they have found a Golden Retriever crossed with a Labrador makes for the best combination for an ideal guide dog.

Duties

While the fundamental duties of a guide dog may seem straight forward, there are many minor but crucial aspects these dogs must perform to keep their owner safe:

• Leading a person from one location to another
• Walking steadily in a straight line on pavements and avoiding obstacles
• Not turning corners unless

Fire investigation dogs play important role in determining if arson has been committed. Their skill at detecting the presence of ignitables at a scene is invaluable to investigators as they can find the source of a fire that could otherwise go undetected.

There are a total of 39 fire brigades operating across the UK with over 22,000 full-time fighters, but (as of 2013) there are only 17 fire dog units spread across all brigades. For instance East Anglia only has two fire investigation dogs in a unit which covers a wide area of Hertfordshire, Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire, Norfolk, Essex, and Suffolk.

Many more fire dogs work with private firms who assess scenes for insurance companies.

How fire dogs are used on investigations

If arson is suspected by the responding fire brigade, or if a fire happened in suspicious circumstances, a Fire Investigation Search Dog is called to the scene to help gather evidence.

When

There are around 2,500 police service dogs operating within police forces across the UK, half of which are in the General Purpose Dog Unit.

General Purpose Police Dogs are multi-disciplined canines who are trained to undertake a wide range of skills, including:

• Tracking suspects
• Missing person searches
• Finding and recovering evidence
• Public order and patrols
• Aid in controlling dangerous dogs
• Protect the handler in dangerous situations and discourage threatening behaviour

Having these dogs trained in such a board manner makes them a highly valuable addition to territorial police forces across the UK.

While English Cocker Spaniels, Springer Spaniel and Labradors are used for more specialist roles like bomb and firearm detection, German Shepherd Dogs or Belgian Malinois are the two common breeds used in the general purpose unit.

Early

Over 20,000 dogs served at the frontline of World War One. Here is a brief history of their roles in the conflict and how the British War Dog School came into existence.