Dogs also must be born with a particular personality for the job to find remains of the missing and help bring closure for anguished families.
A year of intense training to discern the difference between human and animal remains is a must for the specialized search dogs deployed in the treacherous conditions on Maui following last week’s deadly wildfires.
Dogs also must be born with a particular personality for the job to find remains of the missing and help bring closure for anguished families, said Mary Cablk, an expert in detection and systems at the Desert Research Institute in Nevada.
Cablk has trained hundreds of canines, designed training programs for handlers and still goes out on dozens of searches a year with her own dogs, although she is not involved in the Maui recovery operation.
“Dogs that really want to play, that are obsessive about their toy, that are confident and agile, that are not afraid of loud noises or weird surfaces, bring a lot to the table,” she said, explaining that getting to play with a chew toy is generally the dog’s reward for successfully locating human remains.
The wildfires that ravaged Maui last week killed at least 101 people, officials say, making it the deadliest US fire in a century.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency’s (FEMA) urban search rescue teams had 20 dogs on the ground as of Monday supporting state and local officials combing through the ashes, and FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell told reporters at the White House on Wednesday the number would rise to at least 40.
