How are the dog teams tested?
A trailing dog is expected to be able to follow a 24-hour-old trail prior to testing. To become operational, the dog and handler team works a mile-and-a-half to two-mile-long trail which is aged 8 to 12 hours and contaminated with other people s scents. An air scent dog and handler team demonstrates their ability in 3 separate scenarios: searching a large area (1 square mile) in an efficient manner, searching at night and searching for multiple lost persons at one time. Water, avalanche and evidence dog teams are tested in scenarios closely resembling actual search problems.
