By CHRIS BRAMWELL in Taupo
New Zealand's search dogs were put through their paces in Taupo over Labour Weekend in the fourth national disaster search dog evaluation.
Six of the dogs reached Urban Search and Rescue basic certification and one reached the advanced level, the first in New
Zealand.
Civil Defence Emergency Management Adviser Steve Glassey said he was thrilled with the results.
"It's really exciting to have a dog get its advanced certification.
"And now for the first time we have a certified dog that will be based in Auckland," he said.
Other areas with search dogs are Wellington, Nelson and Christchurch.
Urban Search and Rescue dogs must be healthy, energetic, high drive dogs who can cope with the stress of working around other rescue workers and the noise and confusion of a rescue site.
To reach certification, the dogs must be able to work off-leash, learn to negotiate ladders, see-saws, elevated planks and be willing to crawl through small, dark tunnels.
The handler must be able to direct the dog through a "baseball diamond" course in a maximum of five minutes.
When the dogs find a live victim they must bark for at least 20 seconds, be able to search rubble and alert their handler while out of their sight.
The handlers must undertake training in first aid, incident management, general rescue and structural collapse rescue before they can undergo canine search specialist evaluation.
American dog handler and assessor Shirley Hammond helped to evaluated the dogs. "I am so happy to see how well the dogs have come along here since 1995 when I first visited New Zealand to help initiate the programme," she said.
Two-thirds of New Zealand's rescue dogs are cross trained for wilderness search and rescue.
The New Zealand search dog programme is supported by the multi-agency Urban Search and Rescue project, with funding from the Ministry of Civil Defence and Emergency Management and the Fire Service.
