How Do Rescue Dogs Find Missing People? 

Introduction

     Hi, my name is Kenna. I love dogs, so if you do, too, then you should LOVE this website. Keep reading to find out more about search and rescue dogs.

First Rescue Dogs

     Search and rescue dogs have been around for a long time. They were first used in wars to find people missing on the battlefield.

Why Do We Need Rescue Dogs

     There are many reasons dogs have to find people. For example, they look for murder victims or people who are missing after a tornado. The search and rescue dogs don’t care whether they are finding a dead person, a missing person, or a live person.

How a Rescue Dog Does Its Job

     If the dog points its nose, then the handler will look there. If the dog is correct and points to where a person is located, the dog did their job. If there is not a person where the dog is pointing, then the dog did not do their job successfully. 

     When the dog finds a scent it must show the handler if they are headed the wrong way by barking, sitting, or getting their attention in some way to change direction and correctly follow the scent. 

     In some water searches, the dog will bite at the water to show the handler the correct spot to look.

 Scent Article

     Rescue dogs are given an object, such as a shirt, that smells like the missing person. It helps the dog find the missing person by using the scent to track them. The object the dog is given is called a scent article.

People Motivated

     Rescue dogs need to be people-motivated. That means they want to help find people and not just do their job to get a treat or play a game. 

     The dogs must be able to work on their own because if the dog thinks it is a game they might mess up or get distracted from their real mission.

Fallen Buildings

     Rescue dogs save people from buildings that have fallen down. Many people think that only bigger, muscular dogs are used for searches, but this is wrong.

    Smaller rescue dogs are very useful for search and rescue jobs. Small dogs can be used for getting into small, tight places that humans or bigger dogs can’t get to.

Cadaver Dogs

      In a serious situation like finding a dead body, the dog must stay calm and do the job it is trained to do. 

     Dogs that search for dead bodies are called cadaver dogs. German Shepherds and Labrador Retrievers are breeds that make good cadaver dogs.

Big or Small Dogs?

     Any kind of dog can be trained to be a search dog. Small dogs work best for some searches because they can fit in tight spaces. Other people like using big dogs so they can move faster than little dogs.   

Saint Bernards

     Saint Bernards are a breed that is famous for looking for missing people in snow storms. They have been doing this for 300 years or more.

Author's Note

     I was inspired to make this website because I really love dogs! I already knew that some dogs could do special jobs like police dogs, but I never realized that some dogs were specially trained to rescue people.

     I used to think that when something or someone was lost under the water, that people just dove down searching for them. I didn't realize that dogs were trained to do the job of searching so that people knew exactly where to look.

    Thank you for learning about search and rescue dogs. I hope someday I can train a dog to do this important job.