Cassie, Joey, Dash and Trace love a great game of hide ‘n’ seek.
Oddly they don’t play it with each other; and it always ends in barking.
The four are dogs with the Canadian Search and Disaster Dog Association and the bark alert is a key component of the training.
“We train about 500 hours a year, it’s a huge commitment … everybody has a day job to support this habit,” said team leader Trish Riswold.
The human counterpart also trains, apart from their canine partner, in topics from scent theory to typography to meet the strict guidelines of the United Nations. Everything changes when you start training a dog, said Riswold. Vacations are put on hold, in case the canine is needed in an emergent situation. Training holidays, where the dog is present 24 hours a day, become the norm.
Riswold, who currently trains Trace, has been “addicted” the longest. She started in Search and Rescue doing water rescue in Alberta but when she moved to BC she hooked up with a team doing dog work. Since then she’s had the fortune, and misfortune, to search in some serious events including Haiti after the devastating earthquake.
“It was like seeing an area the size of Greater Victoria in a state of collapse,” she said. “We did everything we possibly could there … there wasn’t huge amounts of people pulled from the rubble, you wish you could do more.”
She’s among four of the six-member team in the Greater Victoria who are from the Peninsula.
Richard Berben, is the newest of the four to take on the training. He’s the lone male in the group, his canine partner is Cassie, the lone female among the four pups.
“Val and I have been married 25 years, and this is a really, really good thing for us to get involved in together,” he said.
“Now all we do is talk dogs,” added Val Berben, who’s training with Dash. “It’s a lot of work, and tiring, but I love it.”
The Berben’s North Saanich yard is filled with pipes and beams and crinkly masses covered in chicken wire. It’s a training ground for their canine partners to learn that stability that can’t always be found in a search situation.
“No one here is successful as an individual,” Riswold said. “The team success depends on everybody.”
The fourth ingredient of the Peninsula portion of the team is Charleen De Long and her dog Joey.
A highlight for De Long is how much Joey loves the “intricate game of hide and seek”
“I like how much they love the work,” she said. “It’s play to them.”
Those playing skills were under a microscope as the group took International Rescue Dog Organization tests in Edmonton Sept. 25, assessing the dogs’ obedience, dexterity and search skills. They all passed the International Rescue Dog Organization test.
Riswold and Trace passed the A level area search, and rubble search. Richard Berben and Cassie passed the A level area, and rubble, and also E level rubble. Charleen De Long with Joe, passed the A level area, A level rubble, and E level rubble. Val Berben and Dash passed the A level rubble, the E level area, and the E level rubble.
“We are very excited about it and happy that all the hard work we put in has paid off,” Val Berben said.
The human partner too was being tested. They’re required to train their dogs at the highest level of obedience and agility and learn emergency first aid, basic canine first aid, danger assessment and building damage typology.
“Dogs are our asset,” Riswold said. “(In a search) we bring our dog and skills and abilities.”
Training is intense, ongoing, and requires volunteer “victims” of all stages of human growth.
“We have to expose (the dogs) to everybody,” Riswold explained.
They’re also always in need of a new challenge. De Long recalled a particularly impacting session in an Edmonton school mid-teardown, that provided ideal conditions for recreating a disaster scene. To offer services as a victim, or a search site for training, email casdda-victoria@shaw.ca.
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Did you know?
The Canadian Search and Disaster Dogs Association (www.casdda.com) is a member of the International Rescue Dog Organization. The IRO is dedicated to collaboration with the disaster relief organisations of the United Nations, the DHA (Department of Humanitarian Affairs) and INSARAG (International Search and Rescue Advisory Group), and the international canine umbrella organization, the FCI (Federation Cynologique International).
