Canine Heroes, a sign of hope during emergencies

Extensive training is required

At home, they are pets, but when it comes to saving lives, they become a vital sign of hope for the community.

This is the story of search and rescue dogs who don’t wear uniforms or carry a radio, yet they are among the most effective search teams in the field when it comes to an emergency following a disaster or a missing person.

The Tuam Herald team experienced one of the sessions in the wilds of Oughterard where both the human and canine volunteers of the Search and Rescue Dog Association (SARDA) in Galway were working to form a partnership that could prove vital during one of their future search and rescue missions.

A member of Mountain Rescue Ireland, SARDA Ireland was set up in 1987 as a charity organisation. It is responsible for training, the assessment and deployment of Air Scenting Search and Rescue Dogs to help search for missing persons.

The team consists of a dog and its handler, who are effective traversing mountains, woodlands, rural and urban areas, waterways and the seashore as part of a search while also having an important role in helping to locate victims of an accident or natural disaster.

These teams train rigorously for years, developing an almost intuitive understanding of each other. Unlike traditional search methods, SARDA dogs rely primarily on their acute sense of smell and their ability to quickly cover vast and difficult terrain.

“It is amazing what they can do with a little bit of training,” said Jarlath Folan, who has been volunteering with SARDA for over 20 years. “I was with the Mountain Rescue team when I first found out about SARDA, and I thought I would like to have a dog that has a job instead of just sitting around in the living room.

“So, I joined SARDA, and my first dog was a Springer Spaniel.”

Over the years, Jarlath has had five dogs who have worked for SARDA, including Shadow, a fully trained Labrador and Lorg, another Labrador pup who is only 11 months old.

“My daughter picked the name for the pup. It’s an Irish word which means search as a verb and scent as a noun, which fits perfectly to his role,” explained Jarlath.

At SARDA, dogs are trained in two categories. An air scenting dog is taught to locate a person by air scent and a Scent Specific Trailing Dog is taught to discriminate between scents to follow a specific one during a search.

Shadow is an air-scenting dog who can work across the wind to cover large areas and sniff out missing people. However, his job doesn’t end there, he also needs to indicate to his handler, Jarlath in this case, that he has found something.

“It is what we call a sequence, where the dog finds someone and comes back to the handler to tell them about it and then bring them to the missing person,” explained Jarlath.

The Galway team also has a Scent-Specific Trailing dog, named Jessie.

“Trailing dogs often need to be provided with a piece of clothing from the missing person, and then they follow that scent to find them,” elaborated Paul Conroy, a Dog Body for SARDA.

A dog body is someone who plays the role of a fake missing person during the dog training sessions.

Paul has been working with SARDA as a Dog Body for over two years and says it's a vital part of the dog’s training.

“It is an important role because without someone to hide, the dogs can’t be trained properly.”

Holding an office job professionally, Paul has always been interested in training dogs and working with them.

“I used to be involved in the sports version of trailing, called Man trailing, which got me interested in scent work with the dogs, and I decided to come to SARDA,” recalled Paul.

While Paul cannot go out during an official search, his role is vital in the background as he prepares the dogs for that real life scenario.

To work with the organisation, all dog teams are assessed by external assessors from the National SARDA UK.

Based on their training levels, the dogs are assigned certain tags. These tags are indicated by the colour of the dog’s vest: a red tag dog with an orange vest and a green tag dog with a green vest.

Red tag dogs are fully trained and go out for search and rescue, while the green tag means a dog is still in training and isn't ready to take part in official searches.

Initially dogs are taught obedience, observation, and the sequence they need to follow during a search.

“Only after passing the tests of obedience, behaviour around livestock and sequence can the dog be awarded a green tag and then they would receive proper training out on the fields,” explained Paul.

In general, it takes around two and half to three years for a dog to be fully trained, but sometimes this period can extend a little longer.

“It also depends on the dog itself, like if the dog is showing some potential then you would want to wait a bit longer, but some dogs just don’t have it in them,” noted Paul.

“The breed of the dog also plays a role because when it comes to choice, we need a dog that’s physically capable of covering the tough terrains,” he added.

Breeds like German Shepherds, Collies and Labradors are believed to be the best suited for the job.

The Galway team also includes a Beagle named Jessie, who is a red tag trailing dog and a Belgian Malinois, who is a green tag dog.

Dogs learn by signals and words, there are a lot of steps in the training, and the trainers need to take it slowly for the dogs to get used to it.

Volunteers from Galway and Mayo meet in the mountains of Oughterard on weekends to train their dogs.

From afar, it may look like a game of hide and seek, where the body hides, and the dog is asked to find them, but it's much more than that.

“It’s about learning how to follow a scent, how to indicate and how to clear an area properly so that we don’t miss anything,” said Ryan Ring, a volunteer with SARDA.

Ryan is currently training his second dog, an 11-month-old German Shepherd named Fòdhla, for the job since his last dog tragically passed away due to an illness.

An activity manager for Killary Adventure Company, Ryan loves dogs and getting them to do a job is what brought him to SARDA.

“I have had dogs all my life, and I wanted a German Shepherd, but I knew they are the working line that has to have a job. That along with my love for the outdoors, became a perfect fit for SARDA,” noted Ryan.

SARDA is a voluntary organisation open to anyone who is interested in contributing to an important cause and who loves to be around dogs.

It is also a great place for someone who wants to be around dogs but can’t take on the full responsibility of a pet.

“We are always looking for more people to come in and join us, especially as dog body because more of them means more training for the dogs,” said Ryan.

“People don’t need to have a dog even to join us, because they need to give at least six months to bodying to show their commitment before bringing in their dog for training.

“It also gives you an idea of what kind of dog you should get and what would work best for you,” explained Ryan.

Along with the dogs, handlers at SARDA are also provided with professional training for first aid, radio procedures, search skills and search management etc.

Being a charity organisation, it is also highly dependent on donations for their equipment and other financial expenses.