The dogs work up and down the UK for situations
like the recent explosion in July at the Wood
Treatment plant in the village of Bosley, Cheshire.
They attend gas explosions, collapsed structures,
major road traffic collisions and missing persons.
They also team up with coastguards on cliff,
riverbanks and estuary searchers.
Graham Currie, a USAR technician and dog
handler from Essex said: “Paul West has set up
different search scenarios from open terrain,
rubble, enclosed spaces, all designed to test both
the dogs and their handlers. This ensures all our
training is in place and the dogs are achieving
live scent finds.
“They are our most valuable search tool as they
cover so much ground in a short space of time.
We’ve just been up at Woodbury Common
looking for three casualties in a large area.
Normally it would take 20 persons a whole day,
if not more to cover the same area, the dogs
searched this area in about half an hour.
“The success rate with the dogs is high and
we always confirm any search using two dogs.
Each dog will do a search individually after they
have completed the handlers corroborate to
see if their dog has indicated scent in the same
area. This way we know the exact location of a
trapped person.”
The dogs are part of the technical search carried
by USAR when searching for a missing person and
at this stage specialist equipment and cameras
would be used to assess the casualties’ injuries
and the best means of recovery.
Dog handler and instructor, Steve Dutton from
Devon and Cornwall Police said: “I was asked
by Paul West to give an independent view and
provide feedback on the search area of the
dog training, plus to help out where we can. The
police work directly with the public, so our dog
training is a different style which enables us to
bring a different perspective to the day.
“It’s great to see dogs and handlers from all
over the country bringing their range of skills and
experience. In the day to day we work with Paul
and his dogs a lot, which is invaluable as we learn
so much from each other.”
Each canine has their own unique traits and style,
so the handler’s in-depth knowledge of their dog
is vital in recognising how it is responding at a
search. The handlers benefit from these exercises
as much as their dogs.
To conclude Graham Currie was asked how long
it took for a dog to be fully trained he responded:
“To fully train a dog from a puppy can vary, but
on average it’s a year to 18 months. They are
simply worth their weight in gold.”
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