About Dorset Search Dogs
INTRODUCTION
Dorset Search Dogs is a voluntary organisation that was set up in February 2006 with the purpose of assisting the police and other statutory bodies in the search for missing persons.
Our membership currently comprises of five dog handlers, three operational supports and one non-operational support. We currently have two operational dogs with another three in training and awaiting assessment. We have immediate access to another five Hampshire based dogs and a network of further dog units situated around the UK.
HOW THE DOGS WORK
All our dogs specialise in air scenting. Unlike the traditional police dog following a criminal away from an abandoned car, we do not follow a track of where the missing person is suspected to have gone missing from and we do not need an article belonging to the missing person to locate them. Our dogs can also work within areas that have recently been searched by other searchers and dog teams.
The dogs are trained to pick up on any human scent within their search area. Once located, they follow the ‘scent cone’ to its source, like following smoke to bonfire, and then once they have located a human, they run back to their handler and notify them of their find. For all their efforts, they get a squeaky ball to play with as a reward.
There are two types of air scenting dogs; a level 2 - hasty dog and a level 3 - area dog. A hasty dog will follow a route or a path and rapidly check 10 meters either side of this track with little adverse influence of terrain and visibility. As with normal route and path type searches, the purpose of this type of search is to cover a large distance on a well defined, commonly used track, rapidly and effectively.
An area dog will, as the name suggests, search within a specific area. A typical area of 50-80 acres can be searched with a very high probability of detection in approximately an hour to an hour and half, dependent on terrain and conditions. This is significantly quickly than a team of six humans, walking six abreast, searching back and forth in a line search.
Our dogs can typically work for two hours or more at a time before they require resting. As like their human counterparts, this time is dependent on terrain, climate and the time of the day or night etc. A handler will advise the search controller accordingly on required rest breaks and suitable size areas to be searched
Once given a search area, the team, comprising of a dog handler, the dog and one operational support will devise their own strategy to suitably clear the area. The handler will normally need to know from a search manager or similar, if there are any known hazards within the area for the dog and humans and where the nearest foot based search teams are in relation to the area so that efforts can be made to make sure that the dog doesn’t constantly indicate on these people.
THE TRAINING AND ASSESSMENT PROCESS
A search dog and handler must pass competence-based training and an assessment process before it is considered operationally ready. Typically, the assessment process for an area dog and handler is that they must search a 50 acre area within 90 minutes with anything up to 5 persons hiding within that area. The area can incorporate anything from dense woodland to buildings. A hasty dog is required to search a 1.5km route in 45 minutes. Both assessment processes expect a 100% success rate at finding the missing persons and will further assess the finer details of how the dog and handler worked together and individually.
In addition to the aforementioned assessment process, all our dogs are stock tested annually to ensure they do not chase or attack livestock whilst searching. They are also expected to be obedient and wait patiently for deployment. Some of our dogs have had extensive experience within derelict and partially collapsed structures and are awaiting the Home Office assessment for immediate area disaster work.
All our members hold first aid qualifications to different levels, are search technicians (or equivalent), are competent with radio use, navigation have a host of other skills and qualifications we would consider ourselves self-sufficient for almost any search scenario.
A number of our dogs have also been flight tested and have been certified as deployable by Dorset Police with their helicopter OSCAR 99. This training comprised of a brief familiarisation of the helicopter with the engines off, then with the engines at full power and concluded with a 10 minute flight with dog, handler and support.
Dorset Search Dogs train, on average, twice a week to ensure that every aspect of their work exceeds the required standards. A typical trainee search dog is considered ready for assessment following 12-18 months of intensive training.
AVAILABILITY
The majority of our members work shifts, are self-employed or are in professions (such as police and coastguard) that are usually happy to release members from work to assist with searches. As a result of this, our availability is very close to 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.
All of our deployments for Lowland Search and Rescue is requested via a Police Search Advisor (POLSA), the coastguard and the Association of Lowaland Search and Rescue (ALSAR) voluntary foot-based Search and Rescue Teams. We respond to these call outs as joint members of ALSAR and Search Dogs teams
THE FUTURE
It is our aim to become a dedicated coastguard resource for local deployment and to become operational members of the Home Office National Urban Search and Rescue Dog Group (NSARDG). We are also on the look out for any companies who would be willing to sponsor us and support the work we do.