by Chad Petri
Published: Tue, August 26, 2008 - 5:08 am CST
Last Updated: Tue, August 26, 2008 - 10:56 am CST
This year alone the south west panhandle search and rescue k9 and emotional first aid team have been called on 20 times, more than all of last year. “It makes us work harder knowing the community needs us as a team,” says director of research and logistics for Southwest PAN-SAR Nancy Locke. The first exercise any of these dogs learn is a puppy runaway--someone hides--the dog finds them and then tells the handler.
“You begin to reward the dog when they find someone the next step is you reward them when they find someone and you call them back to you,” says canine handler Laurie Strite. These dogs need to be very well trained. They're put through obedience school first they have to be good with people, search and rescue certification can take two years.
“We as humans leave 40,000 cells per minute on the ground or sticking to leaves a canine can use their nose and over 150,000,000 receptor cells to detect where humans have been,” says Strite. The group receives no local or state funding. They’ve just started accepting donations. Dogs and handlers will be at the Frosty Dog in Daphne’s Jubilee shopping center September 6th from 9 am to noon. For more information on the group, you can click on the link in this story.
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