Ross, Jeff, Marc and Sandi each have yet to reach the age of 10, and they are already members of an elite class of search-and-rescue personnel.
The four make up a team of highly trained disaster search dogs, used by the Kern County Fire Department. The dogs assist the KCFD in locating victims in collapsed buildings so they may be brought to safety.
“It is no fun being a victim,” said Brian Marshall, chief of the KCFD. “These dogs undergo hours and hours of training so that they can search for people who might still be alive in 14-story piles of rubble, like the recent Twin Towers tragedy. It’s more important for these dogs to search than anything else.”
The dogs are trained since birth to be search-and-rescue dogs. They go through anywhere from six months to four years of training from birth. They then go through one year of constant training with KCFD handlers. The dogs must then be certified by the Federal Emergency Management Agency before they can become official members of the Fire Department. At this point, the dogs are worth about $15,000, according to Marshall.
The dogs’ training before they are certified by FEMA ensures that they will recognize hand signals, verbal commands and whistle signals. They are equipped to work under pressure, not because of forced work ethic and relentlessly stoic training, but because of their playful instinct.
“It is not an aggressive type of behavior that these dogs have,” said Daniel Solis, a KCFD handler. “They must be friendly and get along well with people and other dogs.”
For the dogs, it is not like a 9-to-5 job, but more like constant play, according to Marshall. The dogs are trained using incentive techniques and activities that would parallel how most people play with their own dogs at home.
“I get more nervous than the dogs do,” said handler Cliff Kolthoff. “For them, it’s just like a hide-‘n’-go-seek game.”
Ross, Jeff, Marc and Sandi still have many of years ahead of them, but in their young age, they have the opportunity to be members of the KCFD team and help save lives. As Kolthoff puts it, “We develop quite a bond with the dogs. Everyone who is a part of this team is an animal lover, a dog lover.”