When a building collapses, finding people stuck inside can be incredibly challenging, but one group especially equipped and trained for those situations is Canada Task Force 1, the Vancouver-based heavy urban search and rescue team. On Friday, CTV News was invited to watch training involving search dogs, some of which are working on getting validation to participate in the task force. “This is the annual validation we have every year, and they have to pass on various tasks such as searching, obedience, directional control and agility,” Task Force Canine Lead and Vancouver Police Sgt. Bob Sandher told reporters after a session involving Rico, a 10-month-old who has recently passed Level 1 Live Find validation. Many of the top dogs selected for disaster searching enjoy the process in what is the ultimate game of hide-and-seek. “Some dogs are food-driven; the majority of our dogs are toy-driven,” explained Sandher. “They will go over obstacles, jump out of helicopters.” “They’re just happy to please, and they want to essentially win this toy.” Given the expectation that Vancouver is due for a major earthquake, this work takes on greater significance. “We’re training for that national disaster that we hope never comes, but we’ll be ready when it does,” said Vancouver Police Department Const. Colin Naismith, a search dog handler and evaluator. It’s also a time of transition for the team, as 11-year-old Cooper, a Labrador retriever, prepares to retire. The task force had his replacement, three-month-old Indy, on display – as she begins her disaster search dog training. “We’ve had dogs in the past that might not have passed one validation, and then we gave it a couple of days,” said Sandher. “Everything can change—dog can have an off day, handler can have an off day—but it can’t be repeatedly that the dog doesn’t meet our standards. It is a pass-fail for us.” Canada Task Force 1 is made up of 160 members, including paramedics, police officers, firefighters, engineers, doctors, City of Vancouver staff, and of course, search dogs.
