...THE WHITE DRAGON'S WAKE...
INTRODUCTION
TYPES
OF AVALANCHE
THE
MECHANISM OF AVALANCHE RELEASE
FORECASTING
SNOW AVALANCHES
AVALANCHE
CONTROL TECHNIQUES
AVALANCHE
HAZARD RATINGS
AVALANCHE
TRAINING FOR DOGS
INFO
ON THE PAGE OWNERS
- Avalanche Training
Training
a team for avalanche work is simple in concept but may take years to master.
As in wilderness SAR training, the handler/dog relationship
is paramount. If the dog isn't motivated to please the handler, training
will be impossible. The initial step of training involves the
handler running away from the dog (held
by a second person) and jumping into a shallow trench so that he/she is
out of the dog's vision. From
this point, a series of problems are set up for the team: the length of
time the dog is held after the handler is out of sight is increased,
then a small amount of snow -- just a
inch or two -- is used to cover the handler in the trench. This gets the
dog used to the idea that people can
be under the snow. At this point, the training takes a small step back:
now the handler holds the dog and other people are used as
subjects for the dog to find.
Eventually, the team's skills develop to the point where the subject or subjects (multiple burials are not uncommon in training and real missions) are concealed out of sight of both dog and handler. An area is defined and the team is released to search the area. It's an impressive sight to see an avalanche search dog team work a slope and quickly locate someone that's buried up to six feet below the surface!
As a team becomes more experienced, distractions are introduced to better emulate the confusion and environment of a real avalanche rescue situation. At a real avalanche search, there will most likely be many people at the site and walking around in the search area. Probe pole teams may be working, snow cats or snowmobiles may be running, people will be shouting, and equipment will be scattered throughout the area. The dog and handler must be able to work quickly and confidently in the area, ignoring these distractions. Sometimes such distractions such as dog biscuits, favorite toys, and human urine are included in our training. The competent team will be able to bypass these with a minimum of wasted time.
- The Alert
Once
the dog has an idea of the "game" of avalanche search, detecting their
alert on an actual buried person shouldn't be very difficult if the
handler is paying attention. Some dogs
are more motivated than others (see The Reward) but all need to give discernable
alerts in order to qualify
as an avalanche-ready search dog. For
most dogs, the alert is easy to spot because they will vigorously dig where
they smell scent from the buried person coming to the surface.
Depending on the scent and wind conditions, the dog may need to work in
a very fine grid pattern in order to detect the scent or if
conditions are right, they may be able
to air scent from some distance away and follow the airborne scent particles
to where they're emanating
from the snow surface before digging.
In
order for a handler to successfully read a dog's alert, she must be thinking
of the snow and wind conditions (scenting conditions), the
terrain of the slide and surrounding area,
and possible distractions that the dog may be picking up. The successful
team will be able to demonstrate
a good working relationship and be able to quickly cover a large area.
Along with the issues of scenting conditions, terrain and
potential distracttions, the handler should
also consider the overall health and working capability of the dog for
that day.
- Skills
If
a dog is familiar with wilderness SAR work, they are already on their way
to developing skills for avalanche search. With additional
lessons to learn that a subject can be
below the snow surface, an experienced wilderness dog's only limitation
is that of training time and their
handler's ability to pick up necessary skills. The lessons learned in wilderness
training about scent cones are transferable to work in the
snow, though it may take repeated training
for the dog to ignore people on the surface. About the only other skill
the dog needs to develop is
that of riding the different transportation devices (ski lift, snow machine,
sleds) safely and confidently. The handler must learn quite a bit
more than the canine partner:
snow travel (skiing and/or snowshoeing),
navigation, first
aid (canine and human) scent
conditions, avalanche terrain
evaluation and awareness, radio
communication, etc.
