May 23, 2015 Fairfax County Urban Search and Rescue member Charlotte Grove lets her dog, Etta,
find a “missing person” in the rubble during training.
Photo by Linda Davidson/The Washington Post
After devastating earthquakes struck of Nepal last month, rescue-dog teams from the U.S. traveled to the Himalayan nation to help search for survivors. A great story in The Washington Post looks at the kind of training these incredible dogs do at their home base in Fairfax County, Virginia:
Every muscle tense, every nerve on alert, the wiry Yellow Labrador shot from her leash Saturday and bounded nimbly up a tortuous vertical maze of concrete slabs, rusted beams and chunks of rubble. Every few feet she stopped and sniffed the wind, then darted through another opening.
Within three minutes, Pryse, a member of the Fairfax County urban search and rescue team, had homed in on her target: a woman trapped inside a section of cement pipe. After a few extra sniffs to confirm the scent, the 6-year-old lab began barking furiously, her tail wagging with excitement.
It’s a fascinating peek into a world we rarely see.