By: Amy Hogan

        Caroline Gillette is a member of Pacific Northwest Search Dogs. She volunteers her time and energy to serve and protect the community with   her German Shepard, Diesel. Her efforts and devotion to what she does has allowed her to become very knowledgeable about what it takes to be a successful search and rescue canine team.

Q:  What is the purpose of canine search and rescue teams for our community?

A:  Canine search and rescue teams are a resource of search and rescue. It is not a dog club, a social club or a competition with each other, however, those things can be side benefits of it. We use the dogs to help find lost people and help recover deceased people. It’s a service to the community.

Q:  What made you inclined to become involved with canine search and rescue?

A:  With search and rescue, I have always admired that people would go out on their own time and look for someones lost loved one. To be able to go out and help is a privilege. And I have always really admired that even though you know someone has drowned or is deceased, people still go out and donate their time because they want to help other families.

Q: Where are the dogs trained to search?

A:  This specific dog I am training will be scent specific trailing. So I want him to be able to work in an urban environment and also in wilderness trailing. Some of our handlers train specifically for certain areas. We have one handler who is training specifically for urban trailing, so he wants to be high contaminated areas, areas with lots of hard surfaces such as pavement and  gravel. Places with surface changes, all different kinds of neighborhoods. We have folks that go missing from their homes or Alzheimer facilities, toddlers that wander off. We train various areas. Part of being a good and solid team is being able to function in various areas and be strong and skillful in those areas.

Q: What is the biggest benefit of canine search and rescue teams for the community?

A:  They certainly augment our probability of finding people in a short amount of time, which could make a difference. They encourage the searchers that are out because the searchers realize they have that much more resource. They can pinpoint and give us direction of travel on a search. A trailing dog can give us direction of travel which changes the scope from 360 to maybe a small area of that circle. So that narrows down the search, considerably.