As you guys know, I live in Houston, and TEXSAR is the closest SAR organization. I was capable of calling them by finding out their phone number on their website, and they allowed me to interview them. The person on the other side of the line was named Karen, and here are some of the questions that I asked her, and what her answers were:
How old do you have to be to join a SAR team?
Karen: You must be at least 18 years to be able to join a SAR team.
How often do you go out on missions?
Karen: It depends. We only get called out by law enforcement agencies, so we don’t go out on every call. For example this year, we didn’t go out that much until April, but after the rains started, we sometimes had 2-3 call-outs a week. So on average, I’d say about 20-40 call-outs per year.
How long does it take to train a dog?
Karen: I’m not on the K-9 team, so I can’t really tell you the exact answer, but I think that it’s usually about a year, and there are even more tests for the dog to get certified. After that, it has to go through training every week. So, yeah, I think about a year.
What Kind of dog is best for SAR?
Karen: There really is no one breed that can do everything that we need. Border-collies are really good, Pitbull mixes, German Shepherds, I mean really it depends on the dog. Some dogs are good for following human remains, others can smell human bodies under water, while others are good for locating humans in debris or other environments.
I hope that you liked this small interview, and it would be even better if I had answered one of the questions you were wondering about. Please leave a like, comment, or even better, subscribe to my blog. See ya!
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