You are my nose, my trustworthy brother
Obeying orders unconditionally is the nature of people who serve in the army, but for a certain group of special “soldiers ”, having different thought at critical moment might bring an unexpected result.
“Panda” is one of the search and rescue dogs or SAR dogs trained in SAR Dog Squadron, Special Service Contingent, Yinchuan Division, Fire Brigade of the Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region. In spite of his young age, he has already taken part in several important missions. There is one mission that his handler Zhang Haixu is still able to recall every detail with great sense of pride even two years later.
Zhang told us that they were assigned this urgent mission to look for an estimated killed victim on a late afternoon in cold winter of 2011. They were brought to a vast deserted area which was said to be the last place the victim ever appeared based on GPS tracing. The search went on for three hours without any progress. If nothing was found before dark, the chances for SAR dogs who rely solely on their great sense of smelling to trace out the route of people’s activity shortly after the case at the scene would get slimmer with time passing by.
Suddenly, Panda stopped at a wasted well and started sniffing around one circle after another, “I thought he was just distracted or getting bored of searching” said Zhang Haixu, “for SAR dogs are all trained to inform their handlers by barking when they find the target with great certainty. Panda, at that time, just couldn’t stop sniffing.” And he completely turned deaf to ignore his handler no matter what commands were given.
Zhang remembered it looked as if Panda was so sure that something was somewhere so close to get, but just unable to get it, and when he is getting more and more anxious, it occurred to Zhang Haixu that the body might be hidden down in the well!
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| SAR dogs under simulated training to search people hidden in box. |
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| SAR dogs under simulated training to search people hidden in box. |
SAR dogs under simulated training to search people hidden in box.
only by then, Zhang finally understood what had kept Panda from sending the signal—water. A well trained SAR dog is able to track out the target even by smelling the subtle smell left in the air, but dogs lost their magic when it comes to water. Panda must have discovered the smell of the victim near the well while water weakened his confidence.
Thanks to Panda’s “insistence”, the police were able to catch all criminals within 24 hours.
According to Zhang Haixu, things would have not gone well if he didn’t trust Panda’s judgment. This experience made him understand that the relationship between the handler and the dog is a bonding of human’s analysis and dog’s nose that goes far beyond orders. It’s indispensable and must be based on mutual trust.
Zhang just couldn’t resist revealing his love towards dogs when telling me all kinds of interesting stories about these animals during our interview. Interestingly, Panda’s eyes were firmly locked on Zhang no matter where he goes in the process. once an order is given, the dog dashes out like an arrow gets rid of string.
SAR dogs here have to take intensive training with their handlers on a daily basis, running, jumping, crossing hurdles… just like all the solders do in the army, for they need to prepare for possible long time and intense rescue work which is aimed at saving people’s life in danger promptly whenever disaster happens. Also due to the intensive practice, they are more likely to get old than carefree pets. All dogs will be taken good care of by any citizen who is willing to adopt them after their retirement.
