National Disaster Search Dog Foundation trains dogs and handlers to be
on the scene when people need their help the most

Know a dog that will play till you drop? A dog that eats the couch instead of sitting on it? A dog that gives the term “high energy” new meaning? A dog that can focus like none you’ve ever seen before?

Then you might have the makings of a search-and-rescue canine. Like Lola. Lola, a Black Lab, is a search dog, trained and ready to be deployed anywhere in the country to search for live human scent in rubble and collapsed structures that result from earthquakes, mudslides, tornadoes, hurricanes and even bombings. At age 2, she was 24 hours away from being put down when a veterinarian in South San Francisco rescued her and donated her to the National Disaster Search Dog Foundation, Ojai, Calif. Today, she and firefighter Johnny Subia of the Seaside (Calif.) Fire Department are part of the Oakland Urban Search and Rescue Team. The two are sponsored by Boehringer Ingelheim Vetmedica.

Strengthening disaster response

The National Disaster Search Dog Foundation is a 501(c)(3) non-profit, non-governmental organization. Its mission is to strengthen disaster response in America by recruiting rescued dogs and partnering them with firefighters and other first responders to find people buried alive in the wreckage of disasters. The Foundation offers the professionally trained canines and an ongoing training program at no cost to fire departments. (Hence the need for sponsors.) What’s more, it ensures lifetime care for every dog in the program.

SDF was founded in 1995 by retired schoolteacher Wilma Melville. That year, Melville and her advanced-certified search dog were deployed to the site of the Oklahoma City bombing. Only one survivor was found by a dog, and it was clear to Melville that the country suffered from a shortage of canine disaster search teams.

There are currently 70 SDF-trained search teams located in California, Florida, New York, Oklahoma and Utah. Thanks to mutual aid agreements between counties, cities and states, these teams can be shared regionally and nationally.

Canine training

Many times, search-and-rescue dogs come from shelters, says Denise Hess, the Foundation’s program supervisor. Often, because of these animals’ high energy levels, their owners simply can’t handle them.

Prospective search-and-rescue canines are walked through a 10-step check by the Foundation’s canine recruiter, explains Hess. “We need dogs with drive, focus and a ton of energy. Imagine what you regard as a high-energy dog, then multiply it by 10.”

For anywhere from a few weeks to a few months, the canine recruits are provided basic behavioral training by a canine prep home family. Then they go to Sundowners kennel in Gilroy, Calif., for six to eight months of training on advanced obedience and disaster search skills by Foundation trainers Pluis Davern, Kate Davern and Sharon Wolfsen. That’s where they learn how to search piles for human scent. Between 80 and 85 percent of the dogs successfully complete the program, a fact that Hess attributes to Search Dog Foundation’s thorough evaluation process. “We’re not bringing in dogs who can’t make it,” she says.

After a disaster, when buildings have crumbled, dogs can search much more quickly and safely than people can, according to the Foundation. By training on simulated rubble piles where volunteer victims are hiding, the canines and their handlers prepare themselves to find people who would otherwise remain buried. A disaster search dog must learn to crawl through tunnels, walk up and down ladders, and walk on wobbly surfaces and over debris and rubble. The dog must be able to go in a direction that its handler has signaled and stop and wait for instructions.

The Search Dog Foundation provided 13 of the search teams deployed at Ground Zero in September 2001. In 2005, 26 teams were sent to Hurricanes Katrina and Rita to assist with rescue efforts.

Handlers’ training

Many handlers are firefighters. That’s because their work schedules usually allow them time to keep their dogs trained and ready at all times. Their status as first-responders to emergencies also make them ideal candidates.

Like the dogs, potential handlers go through a rigorous evaluation process. Subia became interested in the program in 2004, during his first year – a probationary period – of serving on the Seaside Fire Department. “In the interview process, they not only interview you, but your girlfriend, husband or wife, to give you an idea of the commitment this entails,” he says. And it makes sense, he says. “It’s a huge investment to get these dogs up and running. They want to make sure they’re going to get a good bang for the buck.”

Seaside being located close to Sundowners, Subia got an opportunity to participate in the training of some dogs, and even acting as a “victim” for exercises.

Once a person is selected as a handler, he or she travels to the Foundation’s training center for an intensive week of classroom instruction and work with seasoned search dogs. “We laugh that the search dogs know more than the potential handlers,” says Hess. “It’s a trial by fire for them.” From there, the future handlers spend a week in Gilroy, where trainer Pluis Davern pairs them up with their dogs.

Matchmaker

“Pluis evaluates the handlers and the dogs, then evaluates how they work together,” says Hess. “She’ll try several different pairings to see who’s a good match. It depends on personality, drive, how they interact with each other; and she’s dead-on 99.9 percent of the time.”

Adds Subia, “They were going to give me a different dog until they found out I have two cats. There was a last-minute shuffle, and I ended up with Lola.”

“The molding of their personalities together takes upward of six months,” says Hess, referring to the bond between handler and dog. The Foundation’s trainers make monthly visits to the handlers to see how things are going. “Many [handlers] have had pets, but these dogs are a resource and a tool; they need to make sure they keep them up.”

“I had never had a dog, never trained a dog or anything before,” says Subia, a native of California. “And I’m taking a dog nobody wanted because she was hyperactive, high-energy, destructive.”

Subia and Lola spent their first weeks together establishing Subia’s “alpha” status, that is, his role as Lola’s “pack leader” and provider. Not only was Lola learning that Subia was her provider, but she was also learning that she could trust him and depend on him.

Training is ongoing. It never ends.

“We’ve surveyed our handlers and asked them, ‘What’s the hardest part of doing this?’” says Hess. “They say, it’s the time spent – time away from family, from work. It’s time you don’t get back, but it’s worth it, they say.

“We really express that to would-be handlers,” she continues. “You’re required to train two days a week, and do basic obedience training every day. And that dog will be with you 24/7.”

Subia gets together with four other regional handlers and their dogs for regular joint training sessions. “We go to dumps, abandoned buildings or rubble sites. And we literally hide. And we’ve hidden in some nasty places.”

The five handlers simulate disasters, and play hide and seek. Sometimes they work on focus training. “Well put a chicken in a crate and hide it so the dogs can’t get to it,” says Subia. “But they can smell it and potentially hear it. That was one thing that happened in Haiti [following the Jan. 12, 2010, earthquake]. There were lots of chickens running around, but our dogs continued to work, and didn’t stop to chase the chickens.”

Lola is a constant companion. “In the beginning, she went with me everywhere,” he says. “I wanted to expose her to as much as possible, so I took her to the store, to get her accustomed to being at my side with a lot of people around. But now, if I go out to dinner and a hockey game, she stays at home.” Even so, the two are ready to go to a disaster site at a moment’s notice. “You try to make yourself available in the event of something happening,” he says.

“It’s great traveling with Lola,” he continues. “I’ll put her down, tell her ‘stay.’ I can go to the other side of the airport, grab something to eat, then come back and she hasn’t moved. People ask, ‘How do you do that?’ [The answer is], by reinforcing positive behavior.” In trainer’s parlance, teaching a dog to stay put for extended periods of time is called a “stay-down.” “When I come back, she’s anticipating [receiving] something positive. The dogs with high energy need direction and focus. That’s why they excel in this program. We provide that focus.”

Corporate sponsorship

The Foundation calculates the cost of producing one canine-firefighter search team to be about $10,000, including recruitment and training of the dog and handler. Once the teams are partnered up, another $20,000 is spent for ongoing training to reach certification status and to maintain deployment readiness for 10 years (the average working life of a search dog).

To defray those costs, the Foundation seeks funds from individuals, foundations and companies, such as Boehringer Ingelheim Vetmedica. The partnership between the animal health firm and the Foundation began in 2004. To date, BIVI has committed approximately $750,000 in sponsorship to the Foundation’s mission.

“When you look at the relationship between a good working dog and [handler], and what they’re capable of doing, it’s a pretty moving thing,” says Ben Hendrix, DVM, national account manager for Boehringer Ingelheim. Search-and-rescue is a “difficult and delicate mission,” involving a lot of hard work. “Boehringer got involved because of the relationship [between dog and handler], because of the work involved, and because of all it symbolizes in terms of the value of the human-animal bond.”

Hendrix himself first attended a Search Dog Foundation event six years ago. Six months later, he was on the Foundation’s board of directors. He still is today.

“[Sponsoring SDF] fits in with the culture of Boehringer Ingelheim in general,” adds Jane Smith, DVM, executive director, equine division. Family-owned since 1885, the company strives not just to be profitable, but to make a difference with those profits, she says. “We market and sell products,” she says. “But at the same time, we’re always asking, ‘How can we give back?’ The Search Dog Foundation is a beautiful organization that needs support. Look at what they give back. So it just fits very much the culture of our company.”