July 18, 2008

Search and rescue dogs flock to one of the nation’s largest rubble piles in Denver to train and become FEMA certified. (Pet Pulse Photo by Colin Witherill, Design by Mike Lloyd)

DENVER -- Dalmatians are no longer the only dogs manning posts in firehouses these days. Now many breeds of dogs are employed by emergency responders to help with urban rescue efforts.

But before these dogs can save the day, they have to pass rigorous mental and physical tests to qualify for the Federal Emergency Management Agency. One of the nation’s largest training sites is in Colorado where 9-year-old Torrie has come to hone her rescue skills.

“She’s been on standby a couple times but hasn’t actually worked a mission,” said Anne Wichmann, Canine Search Specialist with the Colorado Task Force 1 and Torrie’s handler.

Yet, Torrie is ready, not only is she FEMA certified, she also is a wilderness certified search dog.

“So we respond to wilderness searches and she is just a wonderful dog to search with because she is so happy,” Wichmann said of her partnership with Torrie which is charged with finding people buried in the aftermath of various disasters, from terror attacks to earthquakes.

Along with other search and rescue dogs, Torrie is at a rubble pile on the outskirts of Denver’s International Airport for training and testing. They will demonstrate their agility and ability to follow orders.

“This site is probably the best rubble site in the country because of its size -- you can really stretch the dog,” Wichmann said. “When we go to a disaster, it doesn’t tend to be a pile of rubble the size of three cars. It tends to be blocks and blocks. And this site can teach the dog to do that: work, empty. Work empty, work empty, work found someone!”

While there are about eight other training sites across the United States, it is the massive rubble pile at the Denver site that makes handlers from across the country travel here to practice on it. Approximately 60 percent of the dogs who attempt it become FEMA certified for disaster rescue.

The success rate, Wichmann says, is in part due to less stringent testing. It’s a trend that’s developed over the past few years since past experiences and a broadened knowledge base are better preparing dogs and their handlers.

The National Disaster Search Dog Foundation is one such organization that trains rescue dogs to become FEMA certified and, since its formation in 1996, has seen the rate for dogs succeeding at disaster search training increase from 15 to 85 percent and the time required to reach certification reduced from several years to 11to 14 months.

For Wichmann, the growing ease of testing has resulted in five of her dogs being certified to the FEMA system, including Torrie and her father, who as an integral part of the search at Ground Zero following 9/11 and found several people, including a firefighter.

“Her dad had a real gene for search and rescue, and I just got word yesterday that Torrie’s daughter passed the national pre-test and another one of her sons from that same litter is nationally certified,” Wichmann said of the search and rescue family. “So we’re getting into third generation, so it’s a fun family to work with.”

In addition to agility and commands, Torrie, her family and all FEMA certified dogs are tested on their ability to focus on their handler in a crowd and to find a person hidden in an object.

But for as crucial as the relationship is between dog and handler, the dogs are also tested at their adaptability for allowing someone other than their handler to lead them when necessary.

Today, there are approximately 200 FEMA certified canine teams around the United States, but the National Disaster Search Dog Foundation’s Wilma Melville hopes for at least 330 canine teams as soon as possible -- a far cry from 1995 when there were only 15 FEMA-certified dogs in the entire United States to assist in the relief efforts from the Oklahoma City bombing.

For more information on how a dog can become a FEMA certified search-and-rescue dog, visit SearchDogFoundation.org.

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