Virginia Search and Rescue Dog Association
A member of the American Rescue Dog Association
About
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Established in 1977, the Virginia Search and Rescue Dog Association (VSRDA) is the Southeast’s oldest air-scenting canine search and rescue organization. VSRDA is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, at no cost to the requesting agency.
VSRDA is a member of:
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and is a sanctioned and deployable resource by the Virginia Department of Emergency Management (VDEM).
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VSRDA is a highly skilled volunteer canine search and rescue unit that utilizes specially trained dogs to locate missing persons in a variety of environments and scenarios. Each dog/handler team trains for a minimum of one year before becoming operational to ensure a professional level of performance.
Each handler is certified in Advanced First Aid or as an Emergency Medical Technician. Handlers are also required to qualify in areas such as: land navigation, wilderness survival, search strategy and tactics, lost person behavior, and terrain analysis!
History
The Virginia Search and Rescue Dog Association was organized by Alice and Doug Stanley in August/September of 1977 and passed qualifying tests established by ARDA in April of 1978. The team deployed on its first mission in June of that same year. In the following years the team responded to dozens of successful searches, sometimes even being transported in via plane or helicopter!
"Danka was technically Virginia's first search dog and Katouche was among the first ten," - Alice Stanley.
The use of air-scenting dogs is relatively new in specialized search and rescue. While air scenting has existed in some capacity for hundreds of years, it was only in the late 20th century that its potential was explored in North America. Its use in modern SAR was something of an accident.
Until the late 1960s, tracking/trailing dogs were the accepted standard. As a result, raising awareness about air-scenting dogs largely fell on individual search dog teams to perform education and outreach. Air-scenting dogs have since gained recognition by proving their effectiveness in the field, and have become the standard for most search and rescue operations.
Historically, ARDA teams exclusively utilized German Shepherds as SAR canines. VSRDA later received a special exception to be able to train and operate other breeds, and has since effectively certified many different breeds. Most SAR teams now recruit dogs based on their individual utility and suitability for this work.
K9 Katouche and K9 Danka
Alice Stanley & K9 Danka, and Doug S. & K9 Katouche
Water Recovery
In 1979, founding member Alice Stanley co-authored a research paper on the use of air-scenting dogs for locating drowning victims who are either partially or fully submerged in the water. This pioneering work was the beginning of not only VSRDA’s passion for water recovery work, but also set the stage for teams across the country to begin investigating how to utilize canine resources to assist in the recovery of drowned subjects.
Today, VSRDA utilizes a custom designed and equipped boat which the team acquired through a grant in 2015 in support of water search training and missions. “Water search and recovery is part of our team’s history. All of our members train on skills specific to water search, including boat operations, self-rescue, reading river hydraulics and hazard assessment, scent movement through water, and resource integration with dive and sonar teams,'' commented Sally Dickinson, Training Officer with VSRDA. VSRDA’s treasurer, Jen Massey, who, recently celebrated her 30-year anniversary with the team, has trained and successfully deployed many of her dogs for water search. According to Jen, “Training for water recovery is one of my favorite disciplines. I enjoy the mental challenges of the work, for both dog and handler, and have been grateful for the opportunities provided by VSRDA in support of expanding my knowledge in this discipline.”
Both Sally and Jen have deployed on countless water recoveries and have worked to improve the techniques used in training and actual searches by teaching locally, nationally and internationally. Most recently, Sally traveled to Australia this spring to assist the VRA of New South Wales, Australia, with establishing a new water search capability for the state. “Water search is an area of canine work that, if done well, minimizes risk, effectively combines the many resources it takes to successfully recover the subject in a timely manner, and minimizes distress to loved ones. That takes a considerable amount of training, education, and dedication!”
More about water recovery coming soon on a dedicated page!
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