SAR Training

Last night I received a call from a lady I had talked to about 4 months ago about Kodi and SAR (Search and Rescue) training. She was calling to tell me that one of the local teams she was on had access to a building that was being torn down and would Kodi and I like to “come out and play”. I would need to be a victim for a couple of searches, but Kodi would be able to do a search or two as well.

I of course accepted! She even offered to come get Kodi and I and take us to the event. The building was a fairly large building that had already been knocked mostly down, and the fire department had already done their drills there (in breaking into areas to get to people, fire management training, etc.), so we had the building for several hours of hiding people and finding people. When we got there others were just starting to show up as well. There were already two people (and about four spotters ranging about) “buried” in the building as well.

After introductions and a briefing a dog went on the pile to do a search. They spent about 30 minutes on the pile covering about half of the building, but came off the pile without any find. As visitors, Kodi and I were on the pile next with a local observer. After about ten minutes (in the same area the other dog had just gone over) Kodi alerted on her first find for the night. I tagged the location, called down that help was on the way, and Kodi and I left the pile. The “Rescue Team” went in and helped the person out of the hole for a breather. The observer liked how I handled Kodi, which is basically letting Kodi do her thing, and how I read her signs.

Over the next few hours I was buried a couple of times, and Kodi got to search the pile two more times, both times making a “live” find. In fact, of the whole night, Kodi was the only puppy to actually make finds, which made me happy, but not the rest of the team there.

Over all good training day for Kodi and I, and I enjoyed getting back into it!