Urban Search And Rescue Trains Hard To Recover The Missing

When someone goes missing - the more people searching the better chance there is to find them…but the best chance may come through the work of dogs and their owners specially trained in search and rescue. On Tuesday News 3 spent time with a local team learning how they do what they do so successfully.

Daniel Fuller started Urban Search and Rescue on Hilton Head about five years ago. “I just found it kind of remarkable that an area that's so prone to hurricanes and what not had no search dogs,” says Fuller. Since beginning - the team has grown - at one point reaching 18 dogs. Fuller says the teams are trained for all types of searches - live and cadaver, wilderness and urban, “Any human being - alive or dead - any missing human being. If they're out there - they will find them.”

They conduct training twice a week, every week... a big time commitment, but members like Nancy Blanchard say it's fun for the dogs and the owners, “It absolutely is - it's the search and find. They love it and there's no rewards for Grady - he gets a pat on the head and lets go and moves on to the next victim.” New dogs start by searching for their owners with visual cues. Fuller says the difficulty level increases as they learn, “We keep expanding the distances as long as we have success when we get to a point where we think he's got it. We have the person step off the trail out of view - that removes the visual cue - forces them unconsciously to go to their nose.” The dogs detect scents first through the air - only going to the ground if weather interferes. To be certified as a search and rescue team - a dog has to have about 600 hours of training, 1,000 hours for the human. At the end they take a test in which they might be asked to find something as small as a single fingernail placed in a PVC tube below ground.”

“The big lesson we try to teach the humans is to always trust your dog,” says Fuller. An important lesson learned that may help bring a loved one home. Each volunteer member of the team commits to being ready to go whenever called. “If you had a lost child - who would you want? You'd want everybody to come and not go, well - i've got to finish work or whatever the case may be,” says Blanchard. The Urban Search and Rescue team charges no fees in their efforts to recover missing people - they instead depend on donations. They're also always looking for people to join their team - even if you don't have a dog. For more information on how to donate or become a member of the team – click on a link to their website below.

Urban Search And Rescue