The search and rescue team of the Fire Bureau, Taichung City Government is assigned to international humanitarian rescue duties during April and May of this year. Concurrently, the city's 5 search and rescue dogs, named Parker, Rooney, Uno, Ring, and Queen, are undergoing intensive training supervised by five handlers: Kuo Chun-I, Li Wei-shuo, Hung Jui-hung, Chang Hsien-teng, and Chen I-yuan. They are participating in training sessions at the Zhushan Training Center of the National Fire Agency, Ministry of the Interior and the Search and Rescue Dog Training Center of the Fire Bureau, Kaohsiung City Government. These sessions aim not only to acclimate the dogs to various search and rescue scenarios but also to facilitate mutual learning among handlers from different regions. This exchange enhances the dogs' obedience, agility, stability, and scent search abilities, thereby increasing the chances of achieving search objectives.
The Fire Bureau explains that the detection dogs commonly seen at airports use their acute sense of smell to detect animal and plant items subject to quarantine or drugs carried by travelers. Similarly, search and rescue dogs rely on their ability to detect scents to find people in disaster areas who need help. Since the primary focus of search and rescue dogs is finding “people,” it's essential for them to be highly interested in humans. By increasing interaction with humans, search and rescue dogs develop a positive attitude towards people and perceive the search process as a game of hide-and-seek. This approach encourages search and rescue dogs to actively search for individuals in need at disaster sites.
Regarding how search and rescue dogs locate people needing help, the initial training focuses on teaching them how to signal when they've found someone. In situations where the dogs search through rubble, they typically signal their discovery by barking. This method is preferred because the dogs might locate individuals in areas not visible to handlers. Barking effectively alerts the handler and indicates the direction in which the dog has located the person requiring rescue.
The Fire Bureau also explains that the training process for search and rescue dogs is extensive and gradual. Initially, handlers simulate victims on flat ground, enticing the dogs to approach and bark to indicate they've found the victim, for which they are promptly rewarded. Once the dogs have a certain level of understanding, the scene will be moved to a pile of rubble, allowing the dogs to become accustomed to and overcome the obstacles and fears on the rubble pile. To earn rewards, the dogs must use their sense of smell to locate the victim. Once they learn how to find victims by scent, further reinforcement of this skill is needed, such as discerning residual odors and barking precisely for faint scents. This training challenges handlers' training skills and requires repetitive practice to cultivate sophisticated search abilities.