# SAR dog from Norway



## Hilde Haugsrud (Nov 1, 2017)

First of all, I hope you can understand my English. 😉
I would be happy if someone could tell a little about how the SAR system in US works. How do you work with your dogs? Is there a national approval of the dogs used in rescue? How does the dog report when it finds someone?

A rescue dog in Norway has at least 2 years of education and must pass several tests before they can be approved, and they must pass new tests after 2 years in service. All assignments are requested by the police or national rescue center. The dogs are trained to search in urban areas and in forests/mountains, and they will report if they find people or objects.


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## Misty Wegner (May 22, 2015)

First, your English is excellent! Welcome! 

SAR is very similar in the US in that national certifications are expected and deployment is through law enforcement, usually the sheriff's department. Recertification can be from one year to two years depending upon the organization certifying. We have Trailing dogs, air scent dogs, HRD for land and water (separate), article all of which are separate tests and certifications. 

Each team has their own regulations and expectations. The best teams strive for professional, integrity, and well trained dogs... Not all teams do this unfortunately... Each geographical area will have different callouts, more rural areas may have more hunters and hikers missing and more city SAR teams may have more lost kids or dementia. However, it does seem to be fairly even in my area which is both rural and close enough to larger cities. 

I have two certified dogs for trailing, HRD (land and water) and article (evidence type search).


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## Sarah Platts (Jan 12, 2010)

In the U.S., there is not a systemic nationwide unified certification process (the sole exception is the certification process for FEMA dogs). There are several organizations that are considered "national" because they offer a certification process anywhere in the U.S. 

The majority certify through a group that is active in a certain region or only through their local teams. There are pros and cons with any method. It could allow the certification to be tailored to the specific region the team is functioning in or a specific skillset that matches the requesting agency needs.

Some reasons are real head-knockers such as I am not allowed to test through the SAR certification process in my state because my team is to small whereas I can test and certify my dogs though a 'national organization' which doesn't have the requirement that a group have X number of dogs to be eligible to do the test. I suspect that the major reason the U.S. does not have a unified process is that most of the evaluators are volunteers. They are not paid to travel or have their expenses covered. Most do it because I think they love what they do and accept the costs of doing it. 

Currently, I field 3 certified German Shorthaired Pointers and the national organization I certify through mandate yearly re-cert testing. 

Sam: certified in HR detection, Article (aka evidence), Area Search, and Mantrailing
Gus: certified in HR detection, Area Search, and Mantrailing
Hoss: certified in Area Search, Mantrailing, Tracking, and Article; working toward a USAR disaster cert.


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## Hilde Haugsrud (Nov 1, 2017)

Thank you, it’s interesting to learn about SAR in other places, and that it’s seem to be quite similar to Norway. We also work voluntarily and get paid only for expenses related to assignments.
What does HRD means?

In Norway there is an organization that have all the approval of the SAR dogs, so basically the dogs would be equal tested all over the country. Mostly we work in our own districts, even if the dogs are approved everywhere. Norway is not that big, and there are only about 300 approved dogs. Some of these dogs are approved for search in avalanches or natural disasters, but most for search for missing people in different environments.


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## Misty Wegner (May 22, 2015)

HRD = human remains detection


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## Hilde Haugsrud (Nov 1, 2017)

What is the most common way the dog indicate they found something? Many SAR dogs in Norway use a special collar they can take a piece in their mouth if they find something, and run back to the handler. Other barks and stays there to the handler comes, like my dog do.


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## Sarah Platts (Jan 12, 2010)

What your dog does, we would call a bringsel indication. 

The most common I see here are refind and bark alert. The refind (performed by the majority of wilderness dogs) is where the dog finds the person, comes back to the handler and indicates by either a variety of means - barking, physically tagging the handler, or grabbing on a tab hanging on the handler's belt or pack. When the handler says "show me" the dog returns to the missing subject. Some dogs will constantly ping back and forth between the subject and the handler until the dog gets the two people together. 

Some use the bark alert which is the dog gets to the subject and barks until the handler gets to them. In a wilderness setting, the bark alert is problematical as terrain features , masking sounds, and trees, etc can mask the barking where it cannot be heard.

One of my dogs is 'refind', one is bark alert, and the other is a mix of the two.


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## Misty Wegner (May 22, 2015)

And for articles, human remains etc, a passive alert of a sit, a stare, a sit and stare, and /or down.


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