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Making sure your kids are prepared for hiking

Posted on: March 10th, 2010 By: rhabeger | No Comments

As we move into spring, more and more people will be spending time outdoors in the wilderness. Parents should make sure all members of the family are prepared for what might happen if one, or the whole party, happens to loose their way. Below are listed a few items that everyone should know:

1) Each person should always carry a small fanny pack or pack with a trash bag, bottle of water, granola bar, a bright colored bandanna and whistle on a hike or camping trip. You can make a hole in the side of the bag to use as a makeshift ‘poncho’ (make sure kids know how to do this so they don’t suffocate). This will keep you warm and dry while waiting for people to find you. A whistle can be heard further away than a human voice and takes less energy to use. The water and granola bar will help you get through a couple of hours of waiting. The bandanna can be used for either first aid type of situations or to use as a flag for attracting attention.

2) Your fanny pack should also include basic first aid supplies. Such things as band aids, hand sanitizer, gauze and antibiotic ointment is best. This will handle any small scrapes and cuts that may happen while you are on the trail.

3) If you happen to get lost, STAY WHERE YOU ARE. One of the best things you can remember is to hug a tree. Even small children can find a tree and sit down next to it and rest. If you stop moving, the people who are out looking for you won’t have to chase you down! When explaining this concept to small children, tell them to find a tree and hug it. That tree will be their new friend until other new friends (searchers or search dogs) find them.

4) Make sure your children know that they are not in trouble for getting lost. “My parents won’t be mad at me”.

5) If they hear searchers or someone calling their name, they should respond, but stay where they are. Even if it is dark, most wild animals will be more scared of them. If they hear something they should make a loud noise but stay where they are. The animal will run away and hide. Many children are scared of the ‘lions, tigers and bears’ which results in them running from noises in the dark. This increases the chances they will get hurt and increases the chances that they are actually running from searchers.

6) Before you leave on the trip, footprint your child. If they do happen to get lost, having a clear copy of the tread of the child’s shoe will assist searchers in finding them faster. This is a 5 minute drill which could make a significant difference later.

Many of these seem very common sense, but unless you talk about it with your children, they don’t know what to do. A great program to help kids and parents be prepared is “Hug a Tree.

Be prepared.

Be safe.

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Search Dogs in Haiti — coming home

Posted on: January 25th, 2010 By: rhabeger | No Comments

As the efforts rescue efforts in Haiti wind down and the recovery phase begins, think about what happens to all of the personnel who responded to the call for assistance, including the search dogs. All will return to their ‘normal life’ back at home, whether it be a full time job as a firefighter or for many of the search dog handlers, going back to that ‘office job’. As for the dogs, they go back to training and normal every day dogdom of eat, sleep, play, train (play and train since they should be the same thing).

I didn’t go to Haiti, Dunder and I have yet to be certified by FEMA. However, for the past two weeks I have had someone either stop by my office or send me an email every day asking if I was going to get deployed. I even had several people call to confirm meetings. We will hopefully be attempting our FEMA certifications this summer, putting us on the roster to be deployed. Dunder and I are now wilderness certified so we do respond that way.

I know several handlers who were/are in Haiti and think about them every day. In my experience as a search dog handler, there have been multiple day deployments which result in an almost euphoria filled feeling that when you get home, you go through something of a ‘aderinline crash’….meaning that you were so busy, you knew the job you were doing was incredibly important and getting home, back to the routine of your life, is some how a needed relief but incredibly anti climactic. For me it often results in long bouts of sleep followed with the emotional release of a good cry. (everyone handles it differently)

Guess what, dogs go through that too.

In the case of Haiti or any other type of long term deployment, the dog was the center of their handlers attention, getting to go out and search (or for them, play) for hours with their handler, getting the attention of everyone else in the area and even checked regularly by a vet. They also serve as an emotional balm to victims, other volunteers, the members of their own team and their handler. Not to mention having the press follow them, random people asking to pet them and in general, being the center of the universe. When the dog gets home, guess what, it’s back to just them and their handler and the every day routine of ‘just being a dog’.

One of the things as a handler we actually are trained to do, is watch out for ‘depression’ in our dogs. This has more too do with the dog being so used to the attention, that when they get back home, they think that type of attention should continue. We have to make sure they have an adjustment period. In addition to trying to recover ourselves, we also have to help our dogs recover. One of the best ways for us to make sure our dogs are mentally sharp is to continue to have them work, but to do as many fun things as possible in training. Keeping up the motivation to train is sometimes very hard when you think no one cares several weeks after that big deployment is over. We as a nation have a very short memory. Don’t let these hero’s, whether they have two or four legs, be forgotten.

If you know someone who is a search dog handler or who went on this deployment to Haiti, the best thing you can do is thank them…then ask if you can hide for their dog to do a fun motivational search problem. Also, thank them, agian in a month, and ask to hide for thier dog, agian. Many, if not almost all of the handlers that went on the deployment to Haiti from the USA are volunteers, yes even those with the FEMA teams. Some of the handlers are full time firefighters. Most are volunteers who put their own personal life on hold to answer the call. They are adjusting to being home, getting their life back in order, and having someone who will ask to be a victim can be a motivating tool for the handler.

If you are interested in becoming or learning more about becoming a search dog handler, you can go to www.k9handleracademy.com. You should also spend some time and learn how to be prepared yourself for the type of natural disasters that are common in your area, have supplies stored.

As always, if you have questions, please ask.

Wags,

Robin and K9 Dunder (NASAR Type I Area Search Team)

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What it takes to be a search dog

Posted on: October 12th, 2009 By: rhabeger | 1 Comment

Just recently, I have taken in a new foster dog that might make it as a search dog. Mack is a 10 month old GSD/black lab mix that was just too much of a handful for his current owner. Due to his constant digging and barking, they moved him to the back yard when he was about 5 months old and he had very little play or structure since then. He’s currently 76lbs and definitely has his own idea on how the world works. The majority of dogs get a new name when they go into a program to help give them a new lease on life, we named him Mack because he was so big and pushy…as in ‘Mack Truck’.

So what did I see in Mack to make me think he might make it as a search dog? First, when he got out of the car, in a strange location, he walked right up to me and said hi. He showed a little bit of leeriness, which is perfectly fine but no barking at me in fear or avoidance. I picked up one of the many frisbees that I have and guess what, he wanted to play with me! This is fantastic! He was not overall dependent on his owner for courage, meaning his desire for his toy was greater than him being afraid of me, or of the location he was in. He also would play tug with me, which is the best thing that could have possibly happened.

Next, we loaded him back up in the car, drove to a different location and got him back out. We then pulled out two tennis balls and started throwing them in tall grass. All he wanted to do was run after them and hunt for them in the tall grass, not giving up until he found one. This is also a great sign!

So based on those couple of tests and his overall temperament we decided that if he didn’t make it as a disaster dog, he would be okay as a wilderness search dog. So I loaded him the truck, with my 3 other dogs, and took him home!

The next day, I took him out to the rubble pile to see how he did. Wouldn’t you know, he surprised me and chased a frisbee up onto all different aspects of the pile! I don’t think he realized he had four feet but that didn’t keep him from running up there to get the toy.

We actually have a scoring system for how the dogs react and a specific directions, but I won’t bore you with those. If you really would like to see them they are located at www.disasterdog.org.

In the last week, we’ve been working on him barking for a toy, which he now will do without a problem. He even will bark at me for the toy, which is laying at my feet! He also has some food guarding issues which we are working through. However, I do think all the components are there and with some work, they will come shining through.

Dunder and Mack are playing well, I’ll be taking them both out to the rubble pile to train and work on skills.

Wags,

Robin

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Disaster dog handler — what it takes

Posted on: March 30th, 2009 By: rhabeger | No Comments

Greetings all,

One of the things I thought I would touch on is what it takes to be a search dog handler in a disaster setting. Usually on tv or in the papers you see these people walking around with nicely trained dogs in a horrible setting and think, ‘wow, that would be cool, going out there with Fluffy to find people.’ There is a lot of training that goes into the dog and the handler to prepare them for that type of a situation.

A disaster search dog handler has to sit through classroom training, yes, it’s not always about working with a dog. You do have to understand things about safety, collapsed structures, rope systems, hazardous materials, marking systems for buildings that are not safe, how to communicate in the command structure as well as all of the information you need on how to train and handle a search dog. This type of training is what professional firefighters also go through to prepare them for their career(the basics anyway). So as a canine handler, you have to understand how to fit in that structure, how to keep yourself and the rest of your team safe, help the person you are looking for AND handle the dog. This takes a lot of time. My team training for this weekend is actually the maintenance of my CPR/First aid certification through the Red Cross, which has NOTHING to do with training my dog but is part of my responsibility for keeping my skills as a first responder current.

So yes, you do have to spend a lot of time on ‘non dog stuff’ in order to be a disaster dog handler. Keep in mind, FEMA has a 40 hour class that all disaster dog search dog handlers MUST go through before you can be deployed. This is not a class that is open to the general public, you have to be part of a FEMA team in order to take the class. You spend 1/2 a day in classroom learning about such things as building markings, how buildings collapse and the safety precautions you have to take as well as dog training things. You then spend the afternoon out training, HARD. In addition to this 40 hour class, the other classes include: your hazardous materials class is usually 16 hours of classroom, the ropes class is also 16 hours, the CPR/First Aid is 8-12 hours, then you also have the incident command classes which run anywhere from 4 to 32 hours of classroom. That’s a lot of time in the classroom and very little spent working your dog!!!!!

So then, you add your dog training time on top of that. You and your dog have to train in obedience, agility, rubble search and having the dog take directions on which way to search. So while you are sitting in class learning all sorts of new things, at some point you have to make time to train with your dog (remember, the cool part about searching with Fluffy). First and foremost, you have to see if Fluffy has the ability to do this work. (which is a whole different post).

Am I trying to talk anyone out of doing this type of volunteer work, NO! It’s great, I love it and my dogs love having a job. But then I’m the person who got up at 4am on Saturday, drove 3 hours, to sit in class for 6 hours, train my dog for 1 hour, train other people’s dogs for 2 hours, drive home for 3 hours (got home at 8pm) and spent my own money to do it.

Just have an appreciation for how much time, sweat and training those cool dog handlers have put in when they make their job look easy.

Wags,

Robin and Dunder (search dog in training)

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Paying it Forward

Posted on: January 7th, 2009 By: Paul Faust | No Comments

As many of your already know, since my appearance of The Office I have very much wanted to find a way to “Pay it Forward” and take the opportunity I was given to do some good. I was so extremely lucky to be given the part of “Cool Guy Paul” of Disaster Kits Limited and felt I had to share in the good fortune.

My character is the sole owner of a company that makes and sells Emergency Preparedness Kits and supplies. These are products that people would need or use if they were every faced with a disaster. During a disaster: hurricane, fire, flood, earthquake, act of terror and any of a long list a terrible events there are many people who respond. This list includes police, fire, EMT’s, C.E.R.T. team volunteers, Red Cross, military, Coast Guard and depending on the incident many other groups. One type of responder that is not often talked about but is extremely important and desperately needed are search and rescue dogs and their handlers. These dogs have the ability to do things that in some cases humans simply cannot do and in other cases….they just do it much better and quicker (in most situations…time saved…means lives saved)

With their ultra-sensitive hearing, night vision, endurance and keen sense of smell these dogs perform takes such as:

1. Finding a lost person in the woods
2. Following a patient with Alzheimer’s missing from a nursing home
3. Locate a skier buried in an Avalanche
4. Assist law enforcement with crime scenes
5. Find live people trapped in collapsed buildings
6. Locate drowning victims

This is just short list of some of the amazing things these dogs and their handlers do in extremely dangerous and often unstable environments, in any weather, day or night. As a volunteer firefighter I have been on calls and seen these dogs in action.

From what I have found, most of these dog teams are operated by volunteers. These very unique, brave and talented people give up their time and money to find and train these dogs. Not only does the dog have to go through training but so does the handler. They have to learn to work with the dog as a team to perform the necessary task. This training can take anywhere from one to two years. Between finding and caring for the dog, travel, training courses and deployment this can get to be expensive.

I decided a while ago that I was going to sponsor a dog. I wanted to be able to provide all the money necessary to find and train at least one of these amazing animals and support their team. I wanted to do this for 2 main reasons.

1. To take the amazing opportunity I was given and do something more with it then just benefit myself.

2. To help educate and make people more aware of these great animals, their handlers and what they do.

After a long search I am happy to report that I have found a dog and handler and have already begun my support. Here is a quick brief:

He is a yellow lab/golden retriever mix and was found at an animal shelter in May of last year. He had been given up for adoption by his previous owner who thought he was overly aggressive and who did not have time for a growing puppy. He was evaluated and placed into a Paws of Life foster home and for the next three months learned how to play tug and that people were fun. He then went to training with FEMA K9 handlers who saw a significant amount of potential in him. At 6 months old he was competing basic tasks for his search dog training such as barking at hidden people, playing tug and agility.

He is now in training for a state urban search and rescue team and a wilderness search team. He’s working on obedience, agility and searching rubble and wooded areas in training. He’s learning to walk off leash, stay for 5 minutes, come to an emergency stop when called and navigate a complicated agility course. Over the next few months he will also be learning how to work out complex scent problems with his nose and bark to tell us he’s found the person. After that his training will get more technical. I plan to send out a monthly update on his progress.

HERE IS THE BEST PART!!!

This dog…who if all things go according to plan…and who will be trained and deployed to save lives is named “Dunder“. He was obviously named after a paper company that most of you know.

I will be supporting “Dunder” in a number of ways:

1. I will be taking a % of all sales from my company and donating it to various organizations and charities involved in the search, rescue and response field. ‘Dunder” and Paws of Life will be one of them.

2. If I am fortunate enough to have my character appear in a future episode I will be donating a portion of what I am paid to “Dunders”: support.

3. I will be exploring other fundraising and awareness options.

For more information on “Dunder” and Paws of Life you can go to www.1800prepare.com and click on the Charities We Support link. There you can click on the link to Paws of Life. This will take you to a page that shows information and a picture of “Dunder”. It is also a place where if you want you can make your own donation to help support “Dunder”. By no means am I asking you to make a donation. I am fully committed to supporting this myself. However…please feel free to make a donation if you would like.

I have already discussed with “Dunders” handler who also happens to run Paws of Life that is we raise enough money I want to find another dog who will be named……”Mifflin“. I am confident I will reach this goal.

Ok….this blog post is already about 300 words longer then I planned. Until next time….Be Ready….Be Prepared….and stay safe.

All the best,

Paul

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Archive for the ‘Charities/Groups we support’ Category

Making sure your kids are prepared for hiking

Search Dogs in Haiti — coming home

What it takes to be a search dog

Disaster dog handler — what it takes

Paying it Forward

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