Search Dogs for Water

[Gary D.]

Feels like I was just on an operation with a dog. Good job Agatti. Thanks for the distraction explanation, I forgot about it and that may have been the case in some of the failures the others have seen.

Thanks again

 

[pantheraba]

Excellent post, Agatti. Our team leader just helped with the water certification evaluation of several HRD dogs last week. He piloted our dive boat while evaluators checked the dogs. They put HR in the water at various points and had the dogs "do their thing". He noted that some dogs were real settled down and got the job done...others were basically "hey, I am in a boat having a good day on the water"...kind of like people. Some were pros, some were still learning.

He also observed that he is glad he got to meet the dogs and handlers for our area during such an event. It will make things easier whenever we interact with them.

I'll pass you post along to our team...good info. Thanks for taking the time to post.

 

[Thalassamania]

agatti, thanks very much.

 

[off the grid]

Thanks everyone for your answers. We've used dogs previously with some sucess. In this case, we would have been better off diving where most rec divers at this location go prior to diving on the dog hits. Would have saved us a lot of time. We will still use dogs but I probably won't make their hits a top priority unless we have no other info at a site. Thanks again.

 

[sealark]

I don't think a dog could smell a submerged corpse until it started decomposing and gassing off. And by then it would float. I worked with dogs in the navy locating scuba divers. They always alerted and would bite at the bubbles on the surface. When we surfaced they went crazy. They were attact trained dogs.

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[C P]

I've seen K9s alert on a body in a as little as 12 hours on a fisherman in shallow water, about 10 feet. I think the distraction discussion is spot on. Even the boat made a difference. You also need to take into account currents and wind.

 

[Gary D.]

A body starts to decompose very quickly if not immediately after death and the warmer the surrounding temperature the faster the rate.

If all bodies floated after a while there would be no need for PSD’s. The truth is depending where you are very few float no matter how long they have been down. Here in the Inland Pacific North West if they are over 40’ they are a keeper and will not surface no matter how long you wait.

I’m thinking the dogs you worked with locating scuba divers had little or no HRD training. Personal Protection, Attack, S&R or the family pet may be making a game out of the bubbles and wouldn’t have a clue what to do if they did smell human remains. The human remains dogs working water are very specialized and like to work out of a human powered vessel like a canoe, row boat or something slow and odorless.

A while back I watched one of our local dogs just being a dog in a canoe. But every time they passed over a spot in the lake she went ape trying to get into the water and had to be held in by her handler. This went on for better than 10 times in the same spot. A few feet further and she went back to being a happy dog enjoying the ride. 350’ below and a hundred or so feet up wind were human remains.

If you have a good dog along with a good handler and good training you have a very good tool. We have had more success than failures using them. They are not 100% but neither is any one bit of evidence on its own. It needs to be a total package with as many tools as you need to put all the evidence together to have a successful outcome. If you get with a good dog and handler it just may change skeptical minds.

 

[bane51031]

I also agree with Gary, they are a useful tool.The only experience I had was on a drowning 2 yrs. ago out of state that our team was called in to assist with. It was above a Dam with a current,victim was dressed only in underwear.
The Cadaver dogs kept hitting in a particular area approx. 60ft. deep, we started to search the area and found a huge tree pile underwater, we began the tedious task of searching it but, weather conditions changed for the worse and the onsite commander pulled the teams.
The body surfaced the next morning, I believe the dogs put us on the right area though and had we been able too continue the search we would of been successful with their help.