SUGGESTED
STANDARDS OF PERFORMANCE
TRI-STATE EVALUATIONS
Individual units who have currently adopted this
certification standard are:
Absaroka Search Dogs /
High Country Search Dogs
/
Northwest K-9 /
Weber
Wyoming K-9 / Wyoming
All teams who have adopted this Tri-State Standard
must be certified by these standards or standards of higher difficulty. All teams must be evaluated by an operational
handler who is certified in that specific discipline and is certified through
Tri-State or equal. If a team does not
certify to these standards, they will be removed from the Tri-State Standards.
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SCOPE
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Purpose:
§
The purpose of these Standards of Performance are
to provide:
·
Guidelines to be used for the evaluation of SAR dog
teams.
§
These Standards of Performance provide minimum
requirements for:
¨
Wilderness Search
¨
Trailing
¨
Cadaver
¨
Human Remains Detection
¨
Water
¨
Evidence
¨
Avalanche
¨
Building
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Local Responsibility:
Ø
The training/testing officer for each individual
unit is responsible for validating that individual teams have met or exceeded
these guidelines before obtaining operational status.
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REQUIRED SKILLS NECESSARY FOR ACTIVE
SAR DOG OPERATIONS:
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Handler Skills:
Ø
The handler must complete Handler’s Skills
Check-off List prior to testing the dog for operational status.
Ø
A novice handler must respond to at least one
actual search incident, as dog team support, prior to becoming an operational
dog team.
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Dog Skills – General:
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Adjacent area searching: The dog must be able to work effectively
along side other dog teams without undue distraction.
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Endurance: The dog must be able to work a prolonged
search while maintaining optimum performance.
Ø
Night work: The dog team must show the ability to work
without daylight.
Ø
Wilderness Refind/Alert: The free-ranging dog must either return to
the handler upon making a find and take the handler back to the subject, or the
dog must stay and bark. The handler must
be able to read either alert.
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Alert: In regards to disciplines other than
wilderness, other types of alerts are acceptable: i.e., barking, down, sit and dig. The handler must state alert behavior prior
to testing and must be able to read alert during the test.
Ø
Age: The dog must be at least 12 months of age in
order to be fielded for operational status.
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Temperament: The dog must be able to operate effectively
and non-aggressively in all working situations.
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Vaccinations: All dogs must have proof of current required
vaccinations.
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Agility: Handler must demonstrate, off lead, the
ability to safely and confidently control the dog through the following skills:
·
Jump up at least three feet into a specified area.
·
Crawl under an obstacle ¾ of the dog’s height.
·
Climb onto, and walk along a log or obstacle 3-4
feet off the ground and 10 feet in length.
·
Not jump off area/object until commanded to do
so.
·
Walk through a culvert or small tunnel.
Ø
Obedience:
·
The handler must have off-lead control of the dog
at all times.
·
Dogs will not be allowed to approach other dogs
while training/searching
·
Dogs must be responsive to handler commands.
·
Dogs must demonstrate the following:
o Come
– dog must come directly
o Stop
– on recall (dog will go towards handler and when given a command, stop, down
or sit within a very short distance (safety issue)
o Sit
o Down
o Stay
– 5 minutes with handler out of sight
o Heel
or Close – within 2 feet of handler
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OPERATIONAL EVALUATION
Ø
General:
·
All disciplines must be re-certified every two
years. Every effort should be made to
complete re-certification, prior to expiration date. In the event this does not happen, the dog
team will be given a three-month grace period to complete the test evaluation.
·
Upon discretion of an evaluator, a test may be
stopped at any time if the dog team is seen to have:
a) not been ready for testing
b) no forward progress
·
It is the responsibility of the training/testing
officer within each
dog unit, to specify which handlers will
participate in the testing
process,
as evaluators.
·
If a handler who is testing their dog has
hesitation as to the
evaluator
assigned to them, the handler may approach his/her
training/testing
officer and request a different evaluator.
·
The handler must verbalize area strategy and dog’s
indication, prior
to each test.
Mini-Area
Search:
This
must be completed prior to the Wilderness Search test. The area is to be approximately 1/4 by 1/4
mile in moderate terrain containing 3 well-hidden subjects. The search time is limited to 2 hours unless
testers extend the time, due to weather or terrain concerns. The dog team must find all three
subjects. If less than two re-finds or
bark alerts are demonstrated, the test is inconclusive and must be repeated. The purpose of this test is to show the
reliability of the dog’s re-find/bark alert and the strategy skills of the
handler. Upon successful completion, the
handler may request the Wilderness Search test.
The Wilderness Search test must be completed within six months of the
Mini-Area test.
Wilderness
Search:
In a 1
square mile area of moderate terrain, 1 – 3 subjects will be placed, either
hidden or roaming. Subjects will enter
area in a manner, which will make it difficult for the dog to cut the
track. If a dog cuts a track, and
follows it to the subject, this is an acceptable find. There may or may not be a simulated injury
when subjects are located. The dog
handler will complete an interview with the RP, at the search base, prior to
beginning the test. A search strategy
must be developed and verbalized to evaluators, prior to the test. The handler will tell the evaluators what the
dog’s alert will be. Adjustments may be made, considering wind shifts,
obstacles, etc. The test team will be expected to communicate with base via
radio and relay all pertinent information as well as alerts, clues, finds.
After covering the area, the test team will return to the search base and
explain percentage of area covered and give POD. The test team will cover the
area just as he/she would on an actual search.
The test team is expected to cover as much area as possible in three
hours. (Remember, it isn’t possible to
cover the whole area, so segment the area in workable sections.) After handler has completed test, they will
be asked what areas, if any, should be searched more thoroughly. Handlers must show on a topographical map
which areas were covered, location of alerts and finds. Passing the operational wilderness search
test will be a matter of the teams’ overall performance, taking all factors
into consideration. The team is not
expected to locate all subjects. If a
dog locates a subject, and does not successfully alert the handler, the
evaluators will terminate the test. The
focus of this test is on the quality of the search strategy, proficiency in
navigating through the search area and the team’s ability to search
efficiently, for the full duration of the test.
Re-Certification: The “Mini-Area Search” test will be used.
Trailing
Search:
q Level
1: The length
of the trail will be at least 1 mile and will be aged not less than 4 hours.
The handler is responsible for collecting the scent article. The handler will be given a designated PLS,
with area approximately 20 X 20 feet. The PLS will be contaminated by one
person walking away from the PLS at the same time as the subject. This trail will be approximately ¼ mile in
length. The two people will walk in different directions. The subject’s trail
will be laid in moderate terrain and all attempts will be made so that the dog
cannot air scent. The start of the track
should have a 360-degree possibility of direction. One cross track will be laid
within one hour prior to the test and will be laid after the first third of the
actual track. There should be a road crossing, either paved or dirt, in any
part of the test. The dog must obtain
direction of travel and locate subject for successful completion. It is an
acceptable pass if wind change allows the dog to air scent after it has located
the direction of travel, has successfully worked through the contamination, and
successfully passed the cross track.
Re-certification: The same test is used for re-certification.
q Level
2: The length
of the trail will be at least one mile and will be aged not less than 12
hours. Handler will conduct an interview
with RP. The handler is responsible for
collecting the scent article. The
handler will be given a designated PLS, with area approximately 100 X 100
feet. The PLS will be contaminated by one
person walking away from the PLS at the same time as the subject. This trail will be approximately ¼ mile in
length. The two people will walk in different directions. The subject’s trail
will be laid in moderate terrain, and all attempts will be made so that the dog
cannot air scent. The start of the track should have a 360-degree possibility
of direction. One cross track will be laid within two hours prior to the test
and will be laid after the first third of the actual track. There should be a
road crossing, either paved or dirt, in any part of the test. It is an
acceptable pass if wind change allows the dog to air scent after it has located
the direction of travel, has successfully worked through the contamination, and
successfully passed the cross track.
Prior
to testing for Level 2, the team must be certified in Level I.
Re-certification: The same test is used for re-certification.
q Level 3:
The length of the trail will be at least one mile and will be aged not
less than 24 hours. Handler will conduct
an interview with RP. The handler is
responsible for collecting the scent article.
The handler will be given a designated PLS, with area approximately 100
X 100 feet. The PLS will be contaminated
by one person by walking away from the PLS at the same time as the subject.
This trail will be approximately ¼ mile in length. The two people will walk in different
directions. The subject’s trail will be
laid in moderate terrain, and all attempts will be made so that the dog cannot
air scent. The start of the track should have a 360-degree possibility of
direction. One cross track will be laid within two hours prior to the test and
will be laid after the first third of the actual track. There should be a road
crossing, either paved or dirt, in any part of the test. It is an acceptable
pass if wind change allows the dog to air scent after it has located the
direction of travel, has successfully worked through the contamination, and
successfully passed the cross track.
Prior
to testing for Level 3, the team must be certified in Level 2.
Re-certification: The same test will be used.
q Urban: A handler may test for operational status in
urban search without being operational in Level I or Level II trailing tests.
q Handler
will conduct an interview with RP. The
handler is responsible for collecting the scent article. The handler will be given the PLS of either a
residence or vehicle. The area will be contaminated. The trail will be aged not less than 2 hours
and will be 6 – 8 blocks in length. The
trail will include asphalt, concrete, sidewalks, alleys, grass, etc. There will be at least two street
crossings. No day-to-day activities in
the area will cause delay or cancellation of the test. Time limit is 1 hour but may be extended by
the evaluators if they deem that there continues to be forward progress. Dog
must locate and identify correct subject for completion of test.
Re-certification: The same test will be used.
Cadaver
Search:
q Level
1: The handler will verbalize strategy, prior to
test. If handler chooses to do an
initial hasty search prior to beginning search strategy, this will be
considered acceptable. This must be
verbalized prior to the test. Handler
will verbalize dog’s indication, prior to testing. Dog team will search an area
100 X 100 yards, or equivalent square footage, in moderate terrain. Area will contain two sources. No pseudo scent will be used. The sources
will contain tissue, blood, fat, organ.
Volume of scent will simulate, as closely as possible, a deceased body.
Evaluator/evaluators and dog handler who is testing, will verify volume of
source to be used, prior to the test.
One sample will be on the surface or hanging. The second sample will be buried 2-4 inches
deep. The handler must call a find by
recognizing the dog’s indication behavior as stated prior to the test. False
holes will be present. The team must be able to locate both samples, with no
false alerts. The team must locate both
scent sources within one hour. False
holes will be present. Scent rise time
will be not less than 1 hour.
q Level
2: This will
contain two separate tests. These two tests must be completed within 30 days of each
other.
q The
handler will verbalize search strategy and dog’s indication, prior to the test.
q The
dog team will search two separate areas. Each area will be 100 X 100 yards, or
equivalent square feet in moderate terrain.
The test will contain a minimum of 2 sources. The sources will contain tissue, blood, fat,
organ. No pseudo scent will be used. The
sources may be in one or both areas.
This will be unknown to the handler.
They must search both areas and will not be allowed to return to an area
after it is searched. (Unless the
handler verbalizes interest in a specific area and chooses to take the dog out
of the area of interest and bring it back in to pinpoint source).
Proper
strategy must be used to ensure coverage of the entire search area.
The
samples used will simulate, as closely as possible, a deceased body. . Evaluator/evaluators and dog handler who is
testing, will verify volume of source to be used, prior to the test. The
sources must be concealed extremely well so that the handler is unable to see
them. Samples may be placed on the surface, buried 4-6 inches, or hanging. The dog must be able to locate all samples within
1 hour. The handler must call a find by
recognizing the dog’s indication behavior as stated prior to the test. False
holes will be present. Animal bones or remains will be present. Scent rise time will be not less than 1
hour. Just prior to the test, a
certified cadaver dog will be taken through the area in order to confirm that
there is adequate scent for the testing team.
q After
completing this test, the dog team will search an area approximately 20 X 20
feet. This area will consist of several bones.
This area may contain all animal, all human, or a combination of both.
The dog must be able to identify the human bone and must ignore the animal
bone. Handler must be able to determine,
from the dog’s indication, which, if any are human. The animal bones used for this test will be
bones, which are found naturally in an area and have not been previously
touched or gathered by handlers.
Level
2. Cadaver search test must be
successfully completed prior to testing for Human Remains Detection.
Human
Remains Detection Search:
q 1. The search strategy and the dog’s indication
must be verbalized prior to the test. The dog team will search three separate
areas, 75 X 75 feet each, or equivalent square footage, in moderate terrain,
containing a minimum of 10 sources. One
of the areas may contain no sources.
Blood and bone will be used for 80% of the sources. No pseudo scent will be used. The areas will be searched in sequence to a
70% POD (70% of sources must be found). The dog cannot disturb the source. The
handler may not return to a previously searched area. If the dog finds a source in an adjacent
area, it is counted, but the handler must complete the search in the current
area. The handler must call a find by
recognizing the dog’s indication behavior as stated prior to the test with no
more than one false alert. The handler
will be given 30 minutes to complete each area.
Special care must be given while setting this test up, due to the subtle
nature of the samples. If the dog is in
scent and indicates, the evaluators may ask the handler to pin point the
source.
q 2. The dog team will search one room in a
building, no larger than 20’ x 20’. Not
less than three samples will be in the room.
The sources will be well concealed.
They may be at floor level or raised, but not more than 3 feet. The
samples will be blood and/or tissue. The handler will be given 30 minutes to
search the area to a 70% POD (70% of an unknown number of sources must be
found). Dog must not disturb the
samples. The handler must call a find by recognizing the dog’s indication
behavior as stated prior to the test.
Re-certification: The same test is used for re-certification.
Evidence
Search:
q The
dog team will search an area 200 X 200 feet, or equivalent square footage, in
moderate terrain. A minimum of three,
human scented articles will be well concealed on the surface or hanging, but
not buried. A variety of articles will
be used, including but not limited to: metal, plastic, and cloth. The person
who is setting the test, can not use his/her own scent articles. The handler
will be given 1 hour to search the area to an 80% POD ( 80% of an unknown
number of articles must be found). Scent
rise time will be no less than 30 minutes.
The handler must state their procedures for crime scene preservation.
Re-certification: The same test is used for re-certification.
Water
Search:
There
are 2 separate tests for certification:
shore and open water
A
handler may choose to certify in one or both of these water certifications.
q Shore:
The dog team will search a stream or shore line, approximately 100 yards in
length. A scent source will be placed
5-10 feet off the shoreline and will be 2 - 10 inches deep. The dog may indicate from the shore, or in
the water, as long as handler can describe the location of the scent source
within 15 yards. Scent rise time will be no less than 15 minutes.
Re-certification: The same test will be used for
re-certification.
q Open
water: The team will perform an open water search. This
will be done from a boat, in an area approximately 3 – 4 acres. A scent source will be used for the open
water search. There will be no divers
used for this certification. Scent
source will be placed approximately 15 feet under water surface. The team will
be tested on the strategy used to search the area, how efficiently the dog
handler communicates to the boat operator, and how efficiently the handler can
read the dog alerts at the subject’s location.
The handler must be able to define a search area for the divers. This area must be within 100 feet of scent
source. Handler will plot location on
map and explain what effects the wind and current may have on the scent. Scent
rise time will be no less than 15 minutes.
Re-certification: The same test will be used for
re-certification.
Avalanche Search:
q
Handler will conduct an
interview with the RP prior to testing. Dog team will search an area no less
than 150 X 150 feet that has been adequately tracked up/contaminated to hide
ski tracks and holes. Other searchers will actively be searching the area.
q
Initial
Certification: There will 1 or 2
live victim(s) and four scented articles placed in the test area. For
successful completion during the initial certification, the team must locate
all the live victim(s) and 1 or 2 articles (for a total of 3 finds). The
victim(s) must be hidden at a depth of 2 - 5 feet. Victim will enter the area
in a manner making it difficult for the dog to track to the cave. Minimum scent
rise time is 15 minutes for the live victim, and 1 hour for the articles. The
longer the rise time for the articles, the deeper they can be buried.
q
The optimal way to place articles for tests
are as follows: Place articles the day before if possible, use large articles
(such as shirts, pants, scarves, gloves), when placing the article in the snow
be sure to have the article opened up to full size, place blocks of snow on the
articles to cover and then throw snow over the blocks to cover up the blocks
(just like covering up live victims…with blocks covering the holes and snow
thrown over the blocks), if this method is used you can bury the articles 1-3
feet deep, otherwise they should be buried 2-6 inches.
q
The test area will have
false holes. The team will be given ½ -
1 hour to work the area, depending on size and terrain.
q
Re-certification: May be set up as above or:
q
If there isn’t enough
snow for live victims, the testers will place four articles in the test area.
If only articles are placed, they must find 3 of the 4 articles. If possible, the articles that are used on
the test should have been worn by people not setting up the test area and not
hiding the articles. Handler must also accurately describe all areas that were
searched and give a POD for the area. The test area will have false holes.
People in the area will be placed so they will not clue the dog and handler.
q
All of the following
safety precautions will be observed for a live burial: 1. Victim must have a radio and transceiver.
Both must be in a position to be easily activated. 2. Victim location is to be
marked and watched by an observer with a radio and transceiver.
Building
Search:
q One
to three victims will hide in a large building at least 15 minutes prior to the
test. All victims must be found within designated time limit.
v
*** Due to the complexity of the building search,
specifics will be discussed prior to testing.
Revised: January, 2008