This morning I participated in a Search and Rescue (SAR) training at Henry Cowell State Park. The training was broken into two sections; a chance for the Tech Team to focus on verticle rope rigging, and a a opportunity for dog handlers to get additional training with their trailing and area search dogs within a wilderness setting.
A trailing dog is often refered to as a tracking dog. The dog is given a command to find a specific person by following minute particles of human tissue or skin cells that have been left behind as a person passed on through.
An area dog, or scent dog, finds people by picking up small traces of human scent that are drifting in the air, and looks for the cone of scent where it’s most concentrated – which is where you’ll often locate the subject you’re searching for.
There are other areas of specialty that dogs can be trained for; disaster, cadaver, water search, etc.
This morning, the trailing dogs were given an uncontaminated scent article belonging to one of the members of our team; the missing person for today’s training. Several days prior, our missing person had hiked along the trails and left their scent behind. Amazingly, the trailing dogs picked up the scent trail today and followed it to where he was, and the area dogs simply ran back and forth, narrowing down the scent cone until they found the missing person.
When the dogs found the missing person they were put into harnesses and pullied up to the ledge where the Tech Team was at.
The looks on the dogs faces while on rope was priceless. I look forward to our night search drill scheduled for next week and hope to see the dogs there.
What you learn as an EMT about sizing an oropharyngeal airway (OPA) changes when you’re placing one in a person who has already decompensated and loss all muscle tone. I recently found out out, while on scene, that using a larger OPA works much better so long as your ensure that the OPA doesn’t excessively protrude from the mouth. An OPA sized per text-book recommendations might end up being too small and, therefore, sitting too deep within the airway and being ineffective (or worse yet, possibly becoming an airway obstruction itself).
