Hanover. Dogs are not only man's best friends, they can often help us in special ways in everyday life, both emotionally and practically. With a series on the various assistance and rescue dogs, Agila Pet Insurance wants to pay tribute to these special animals and the services they provide. The first part of this series deals with so-called area search dogs. Agila was there during the training of the rescue dog squad of the ASB Oberschwaben-Nord in the Biberach district.
It is pure April weather: cold, windy and rainy. In the barren woodland next to the dog training area on the edge of Gutenzell-Hürbel, the wind blows through the lush, rustling undergrowth. Uncomfortable. Weather in which you literally don't chase a dog out the door. 'Rusty', 'Henry', 'Djuke', 'Cooper' and 'Milow' are not very interested in that. They love their job and can hardly wait to complete their weekly training as area search dogs with their handlers. On Thursdays and Saturdays – every week, no matter what the weather – the team rehearses for an emergency.
The rescue dog team is deployed when a person is missing and was last seen near a larger area, such as a forest. In this case, the police alert them via the responsible control center. Each dog is then assigned an area of between 20,000 and 50,000 square meters to search for people. The size of the assigned area depends on how strong the rescue dog is at running or how far away they can cover. 'Henry' and 'Milow', for example, are Border Collies, a spirited and hardy breed with enormous enthusiasm for work. They can search large areas in a very short time, which can be crucial in an emergency. Sometimes, however, they also arrive too late, says the head of the rescue dog team, Heike Hirt: “About three months ago, a woman at risk of suicide ran away with her baby. The woman was found, but unfortunately any help came too late for the baby. Thank God, something like this happens very rarely. We are called upon on average 20 times a year and in the last ten years we have been unable to help a total of four people.”
Pleasant experiences come 
Fortunately, this happens more often. For example, when Heike Hirt and her team were called to Laupheim some time ago. A man suffering from dementia had run out of the local hospital into a nearby forest. From 2 to 4 a.m., the dog squad searched in extremely inaccessible, densely overgrown undergrowth in very low temperatures until 'Henry' found the scantily clad man in time. He had stumbled in the undergrowth and was unable to get up on his own. The dog barked and barked, as he had learned, until Heike Hirt was with him and could help the man.
This alerting of an accident victim by continuously barking until the dog handler arrives at the scene of the accident is practiced at every training session. It is a main part of the two-year training of area search dogs. Today, Ilona Pfeiffer, who is available to the rescue dog team as an assistant during operations and training, plays the “victim”. She lies down on a mat on the dog training area. Heike Hirt, the owner of 'Henry', puts his identification blanket on him, a harness to which a small bell is attached as an acoustic orientation signal and a light, because operations usually take place at night. The identification blanket serves as a signal for him to be in work mode and shows hunters and foresters, among others, that the dog is on duty.
The seven-year-old Border Collie immediately becomes highly concentrated and literally paws the ground. When Heike Hirt lets him off the leash, he storms towards Ilona, stands in front of her and barks until his owner comes and praises him. As a reward, she plays with him with a Frisbee. “That is the best thing for him, he would give up any treat for his “Leave the disc lying there,” commented Conny Gruber, who observed the training, on 'Henry's' dive for the Frisbee. “Some dogs are so-called food dogs, they receive a treat as a reward. Whatever it is that gives the dog the most pleasure, it must always be there, training to be an area search dog is done exclusively through positive reinforcement,” Gruber continued. The qualified office clerk has been involved in the rescue dog unit of the ASB Oberschwaben-Nord for 13 years. 'Cooper', her eleven-year-old terrier mix, will soon be “retiring”.
As a replacement, Conny Gruber trained the two-year-old Border Collie 'Milow' to be a rescue dog. She explains why she chose this breed of dog: “Border Collies are very well suited as area search dogs. Firstly, they are medium-sized, so they can fit through the undergrowth and can run quickly over long distances with their medium-length legs. And secondly, they are very hardy and hardworking animals.” The training and the missions are sometimes like high-performance sport. The often very rough terrain puts strain on the animals' bones and joints, so it is unsuitable for very large dog breeds. Dogs with short, flat noses, whose sense of smell is not so pronounced, are also not suitable as area search dogs, because the animals often have to follow a scent over long distances to find the missing person.
As can be seen in the next exercise, the dogs are not looking for a specific scent of a missing person, but for human beings in general. If there are other people in the forest, they are also “found”. This becomes very clear when 'Djuke', Alexandra Pfeiffer's five-year-old mixed breed, is sent into the forest to search for a missing person. Ilona Pfeiffer, today's “victim”, had previously hidden in the undergrowth. However, the photographer is also hiding behind a tree very close to her. 'Djuke' finds him first. When Alexandra sends 'Djuke' out again, the mix of Border Collie and Kromfohrländer immediately spots the young woman in the undergrowth.
The weekly training of the area search dogs also includes exercises on the equipment, for example on the high scaffolding or the ladder. The dogs train their sure-footedness and at the same time the joint exercises strengthen the team's ability to work together. Not only do the dogs have to stay fit and able to work as a team, membership of a rescue dog squad is also a great responsibility for the dog handlers and requires constant training. They all work on a voluntary basis and have to cover all expenses associated with the squad's work themselves. For example, the dogs are equipped with GPS transmitters when they are deployed so that it is possible to see exactly where they have already searched. The GPS devices are expensive, as are the alarms that announce a deployment to the squad members at home. In addition, there is no compensation for expenses, even though the squad is requested by the police, and there is no release from work the next day, as is the case with the fire brigade. Squad leader Heike Hirt and her team are nevertheless prepared to bear the costs and the time required to save human lives and also because they know how much their four-legged friends 'Rusty', 'Henry', 'Djuke', 'Cooper' and 'Milow' love their job as rescue dogs.