Dr. Linda Hornisberger addressed JEMUN delegates on disaster rescue dog and their training. Dr. Horisberger specializes in behavioral medicine and lectured at Swiss Vet University of Bern.
She now works as the chief professional trainer of REDOG Switzerland, the only organization in Switzerland that trains SAR dogs for rubble search and rescue. She trains and works with dogs to rescue people missing due to earthquakes.
Dr. Hornisberger introduced her organization REDOG, which works across the globe. It was established in 1971 and started its activities only in Switzerland. At that time, her country had only avalanche dogs and dogs to search in areas such as forests for lost people.
Her team then came up with the idea for the organization. Hornisberger stated that “we will fly all over the world to help people; this is the vision.” They started training dogs for searching rescue from that time. There are approximately 730 members, all of whom are volunteers.
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Each group trains individually in different ways, Dr. Hornisberger noted. There are 6 different search disciplines: rubble search, technical search, area search in mountains and woods, and other types of searches. They usually have special units for each day. That is, everyone has different job every day. To work on missions, their tasks are “to get information, make decisions, offer help, and get ready to go.”
REDOG has worked in myriad places, like Italy, Japan, Jordan, among others, to save people after disasters. After an earthquake, “houses collapse, thousands of people get hurt and killed,
and thousands of people are buried beneath the rubble, so they need help quickly.”
Dr. Hornisberger’s team works together with other teams worldwide to that end. They also invite trainers from abroad because they have access to a good training center. Sometimes, her team also goes to other countries to train with other teams in that area, such as Japan, where her team maintains a close relationship with Japanese search and rescue dog teams.
Kotone Takida, 3rd year student at Kindai U., said of the presentation that she “realized that people and dogs can live together, helping each other.
Dr. Hornisberger loves dogs and treats them as her family, or more.” Takida furthered, “If the dogs run away or pass away, she will be so depressed for sure, and it’s pretty obvious that her dogs will die before Dr. Hornisberger. Knowing this, she and the members of the organization still decide to live and work together with their special animals.”
by Kotone Takida