WHITNEY POINT – The close relationship between man and dog has been evident for millennia, and earning the title of “man's best friend” took thousands of year of living – and working – side-by-side in concert.
Often when we think about K-9s, an image of a police dog seeking out drugs or a dalmatian and a fire truck come to mind. But service K-9s are utilized for a variety of tactical purposes and undergo hours of rigorous training for many other purposes, as was displayed at Dorchester Park in Whitney Point over the weekend.
Search and Rescue K-9 teams from up and down the east coast joined local dive teams on Saturday and Sunday in participation of Water Workout Weekend, a skills training and teamwork building event organized by Amigo Search and Rescue Dogs, Broome County Water Rescue Response Team, and Eagle Valley Search Dogs.
The collaborative event was aimed at familiarizing search and rescue dogs in water search and recovery techniques, as well as honing “ground search” skills.
“The difficult thing with drownings is that reports from eyewitnesses are often very unreliable leaving divers to search over massive areas which sometimes places them at incredible risks,” said Nina Sorochynskyj, of Eagle Valley Search Dogs. “With the help of trainings like this, we're able to take the dogs out on a boat and teach them to search the water and really narrow down the area, making the search much more efficient.”
Sorochynskyj explains that the animals utilize their keen sense olfactory receptors – or, smell – to locate human remains in the water, just as they do on land.
According to Sorochynskyj, while the dogs can't actually “smell” under water, they can effectively locate the body of the deceased below water based on the location of gasses and minute odors, not detectable by the human nose, rising to the surface of the water with unprecedented accuracy.
“This is an advanced problem set-up which really puts the cooperation of the different teams to task,” said Sorochynskyj. “We placed a training mannequin underwater with some scented training material placed inside it, so it's very realistic. The dive teams are working with side-scan sonar technology and the dogs are working on top of the water in various types of boats to gain familiarity.”
Working closely together with the common goal of recovering a submerged victim as safely and efficiently as possible was the name of the game.
Volunteers form a multitude of agencies worked aside each other while honing skills of both human and animal searchers are a benefit to the community. When search and rescue teams are needed, they immediately respond and there is never a charge to the community for their services.
This was the first time that the event was held in Whitney Point and if the success of Saturday's turnout is any indication, the site may become home to the annual training program.
For more information, visit waterworkoutweekend.org.