L to R - Search and Rescue Dog Association of Alberta

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The Publicity Hound (The Most Dangerous Dog) by John William Grima; 2009 Reprinted with the author's permission. We have all read the news articles regarding Search and Rescue and other Detection Dog handlers, being charged and convicted of Fraud and other crimes. Let’s see now, oh yes, the Michigan woman, for planting evidence. This compromised several prominent investigations, gave false hope to numerous people and left egg on the faces of many reporters and television producers. Then there was the World Trade Centre hero, who defrauded FEMA while staying in a New York luxury hotel. He set up a trust fund for his poor tired old dog that eventually succumbed to the hazards of ground zero, when in fact the old dog wasn’t even a trained search dog. Finally the president of a national detector dog organization for fraud. He put military lives in danger by selling untrained explosive detection dogs to the government for thousands of dollars. When these dogs were finally tested by experts, “they couldn’t find elephant droppings in a bird cage!” These people are the ones that have been caught and convicted so far. These cases have given a black eye to the professional and unpaid professionals, who have legitimate wellrun, standardized programs. However they can be a blessing in disguise if we all learn by them. It is the uneducated and assumption of expertise that these fraud artists rely on. The authorities Scent Dog News... 10 and the media are the main targets of these individuals. The purpose of this article, is to bring this discussion to the forefront and to provide some simple warning signs, so that with a minimum amount of due diligence these menaces will be exposed. ONE PERSON SHOW - This is a dead giveaway. All good Search and Rescue teams are organized with a structure similarly run like a professional emergency service. They are mandated by the authorities to be utilized as a resource and consider themselves as “unpaid professionals” not volunteer searchers. They function as a team. In all the above noted fraud cases, all their publicity was geared to just the individual and their wonder dogs. To this day one can still find the articles on the internet and watch the television shows, profiling them and their dogs. CERTIFICATION - Remember this statement. “Certification is only as good as the person or agency that is certifying”. Make sure the certification is authentic and not self serving. I certify all my students, based on my own qualifications and the above statement applies to me also. All good trainers and dog handlers will welcome and achieve certifications with many other agencies. This is a testament to their training and also allows them to work in multi jurisdictions. For example; the dog team that is certified by the State of Florida cannot work in the state of New York under their standard. However if both teams are also certified by the United States Police Canine Association or North American Police Work Dog Association, they may be able to work across the U.S.A or even Canada.
I know these are police agencies and most unpaid professionals are civilians, however, there are plenty of police run standards out there for civilians to certify in. If the team is not certified by a credible police or government agency, it is because they can’t do it! Finally consider this - there are numerous dog teams out there, still working, that are certified, personally, by the aforementioned fraudsters, themselves. How good is their certification now? SUPER SUCCESS - When I see or read about these teams, they have made some kind of find at every call out they have been to. Sure we all brag about our finds, I have done it myself, but a good dog handler will brag about how his dog worked more than his finds simply because they rarely find anything including the missing persons. A dog is a tool and its value is not just finding a victim. A team more than likely will find clues, evidence, direction of travel and finally more often clear a search area thus contributing to the possibility of detection report at the search end. An actual find of a missing person is likely to be a once in a career experience! SELF INVITATION - Every Search and Rescue has a protocol which should be followed. The authorities usually work in phases and there is a specific phase to call in the search group. The publicity hound calls or shows up uninvited. My search group was called to assist a Police Homicide unit in a body recovery. As we sat in the office the detective took a phone call from a certified graduate of one of these fraudsters. The detective put the call on speaker-phone and we listened to this person bad mouth our group and say he was far more qualified. I have seen the media talking to the search commander. A car will pull up and the publicity hound and his wonder dog get out for a pee and the reporters stampede to get a picture. Later, on the news broadcast or paper they just blindly report it is a “POLICE SEARCH DOG” without even checking. Unpaid Professional Search and Rescue groups have a Memo of Understanding with the authorities and are mandated by policy that can be checked by calling the jurisdiction in charge. At the World Trade Centre many dog teams just showed up that had no business or experience. The problem this created was that there were many professional teams waiting for a call to be utilized that never came because of the number of teams already on the pile. Now what you have is a bunch of Search and Rescue dog teams that claim that they were there at the World Trade Centre which now gives them false credibility. EXCUSES, EXCUSES - Either a dog works or it doesn’t. A well trained search dog will spring into action with his nose down, tail wagging fast and can’t seem to suck in enough looking for air scent or cover ground fast enough. Compare this behaviour with the dog that sniffs mouse holes, looks around at everything else, rolls and scratches and just goes for a walk. Then listen for the excuses. “This area is too contaminated!” “The wind isn’t Scent Dog News... 11
Page 1 and 2: Volume 19 Number 1-4 Annual Review
Page 3 and 4: was on everyone and wasn’t shy ab
Page 5 and 6: 2010 in Review SARDAA members finis
Page 7 and 8: our expectations. Thank you to Expl
Page 9: Vaccines... from page 8 Create a pe
Page 13 and 14: unch of sponsored NASCAR racing dri
Page 15 and 16: Expo... from page 14 them that we w
Page 17 and 18: New Associate Members in 2010 - Lis
Page 19: Happy New Year from all the SARDAA

L to R - Search and Rescue Dog Association of Alberta

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