Size isn't everything meet Rubble Dog Ko

[Andy W.]

Here's something different. These are pictures of Ko, a Cairn terrier handled by a friend and working as a rubble dog in The Netherlands. This was part of a SAR display for the local Fire department earlier this month.

The misper is in the car (surprise!) and the pink object is the reward! Ko is very confident and doesn't generally take no for answer on a search although he does work at his own pace, but then his legs are short.

Apart from Fire Services are there any rubble dogs in the UK does anyone know? In the Netherlands and Europe generally there seems to be a lot of competitions and cross training between groups and clubs, they even have 'rubble' villages for training.

[mike]

There are a number of USAR (rubble) dog teams in the UK, RAPID UK, BIRD, to name but two, GRS did have a couple of little terriers doing USAR work but I am unsure if they are still working.
As is typical in the dog world, politics has got in the way on non fire brigade dogs working on rubble sites in the UK or abroad (DFID).

Last year I was invited out to Italy to look at their dog teams which are trained for both USAR and rural work, there were fire brigade and volunteer teams

Mike

[Andy W.]

Mike, if I read that right as to politics, how can DFID stop private individuals training on rubble in UK or anywhere else?

[mike]

They dont stop you from training, but, when an incident happens abroad DFID will only pay for fire brigade dogs and if an NGO team goes over on their own they wont be used as they must have british consular permission, this wont be given as only fire brigade will get it.
If I remember a UK team did go to a recent earthquake but ended up coming back straight away without deploying.
As for UK work, there are protocols in place that only fire brigade do the inner corden,
Mike

[Andy W.]

They dont stop you from training, but, when an incident happens abroad DFID will only pay for fire brigade dogs and if an NGO team goes over on their own they wont be used as they must have british consular permission, this wont be given as only fire brigade will get it.
If I remember a UK team did go to a recent earthquake but ended up coming back straight away without deploying.
As for UK work, there are protocols in place that only fire brigade do the inner corden,
Mike

Sounds like a job for BIG SOCIETY man to sweep away rules that stop UK volunteers then, as certainly in many European Countries (such as Netherlands) their earthqauke teams are welcome abroad as in Turkey. Especially as Brigades are feeling the pinch finacially now and their search teams might be vulnerable to cuts.

[mike]

Andy,
couldn't agree with you more, the Italian teams were a mix of professional and NGO teams and they worked well together.
The politics of the dog world infuriates me at times, but to be fair I have also seen some dire "operational" dog teams, some professional some NGO.
The quicker we can get people working together and stop the "empire building" the quicker we will see a better quality of dog teams nationally, giving the government no reason to stop using NGO teams.
Rant over, Mike

[Daryl]

Mike

Maybe we should be looking closer to home regarding standardisation of ability/qualification amongst the K9 SAR community before looking abroad....

...just an idea

[tom28]

Andy, USAR are funded by central government as too (I think) are HART and the police CBRN teams. From those that have USAR teams (not every FRS) not all part of ISAR. It is ISAR that gets sent abroad. Be interesting to see if the funding continues in the amount being dished out after 2012!

All the above are trained to work in the inner corden (cold). Not sure if the police would work under air like HART can.

[Daryl]

I think we may be going a little off topic here, but anyway...

HART is indeed funded centrally although not like the other services (ie via Home Office).
Funding will continue past 2012 - All of the comments ref the Olympics is just hearsay and propoganda. The terrorist threat to the UK is much bigger than a sporting event and as such funding has been ring fenced for HART up to 2015. After that date (or even before) it would take a VERY brave person (Prime minister, MP, Director etc) to say that the terrorist threat (International, Irish, local or other) isn't big enough to need HART/ISAR/USAR/Police CBRN (delete as appropriate).

With regard to the structure of USAR and specifically ISAR in the future - 'watch this space'.

My own personal view is that Police will not operate 'under air' as their role would be needed outside of that type of zone - but then again, who would have thought the Ambulance Service would need it....