Water rescue and water recovery?

Question

Do any of you know of any water rescue and water recovery teams in the US with dogs involved in it? I got a call from a firefighter who is in charge of starting one up in Indiana. He knows a lot about the dogs, especially GSD's. We have been talking about drives, ect... My feeling for a dog for this is yes, it does need drives to do the work, but not as much as a hard hitting Schutzhund dog. In my mind, thinking about the tasks for the dog I am thinking something in between a hard Schutzhund dog and a SAR dog. He wants to start with a Shepherd or 2, I would like to convince them on other breeds later as well. Do any of you know of any teams like this? He was into SAR for years, just like a lot in the work, 911 and the Murray building took a toll on him emotionally. I am going to work with this department as much as I can, just wondering if any of you knew of any programs in any departments in the US like this.

Greekman, I was kind of shocked when I go the call honestly. This guy has done SAR for years before. He hates the Mals. He want's drives, but you are exactly right about the type of drive needed. I am not so sure that a Shepherd is the best bet to start with, that is the breed he loves. He has done cadaver work, from what I understand this will be a live rescue and recovery (dead) team. I need to speak with some others involved. I have just never heard of a group like this with Shepherds involved. He might be able to do it, but honestly the Shepherd is just not the dog to start with.

I think all of us are a bit predjudice when it comes to our own breed too! LOL I like Mals, but I right now would never have one. Maybe eventually, but not now. There is nothing better to see, than a nice Mal working well!! Talk about quick and hard hitting!

Answer 1

There is a much different drive involved in rescue work then there is in Sch or any sport work!! In a sport or even in real life street work the dog has different motivational factors for doing what he is doing and works out of prey drive. In rescue the dog works mostly in hunt drive which can easily be confused with prey because they are so similar, but, and you know this, a prey driven dog wants to capture something whereas a hunt driven dog is looking for something that he has not seen, like a detector dog.
It takes a HUGE amount of hunt drive to have a dog "look" for hours, especially in water recovery.
When you say rescue, do you mean cadaver or rescue as in drowning victims?
There are better dogs suited for that type of work then shepherds and the malinois come to mind simply because of their immense hunt drive and because I am honest and I will tell you that I am prejudiced too when it comes to my breed.
No, I do not know of any other units like that in the USA!!

ADD: Thank you for your comments. A lot of people hate malinois because of their "unique" nature, but, we should all be smart enough to understand and choose a breed based on our needs, not our likes and dislikes. While I love the malinois and I would take it over any dog for my type of work, if I were looking for a hunting dog I think that I would focus my search on hunting breeds, regardless of how much I like mals.
I am curious to hear anymore about this type of unit he is putting together, please let me know what he decides to do in the end. Take care!!

Answer 2

Newfoundlands are the most common water search and rescue dog. It's why they were bred, to rescue men who fell overboard from fishing boats. There are other breeds though, like Labs and other water dogs. Some water SAR dogs rescue and some locate cadavers in water (sometimes called water recovery dogs). There are some in the US and I put a few links below.

Answer 3

I saw a tv show about Newfoundlands who did this. They dove out of helicopters and aided in rescue. I think the newfs were in Europe though. I'm gonna do a quick google see what I find...

Here's a little site about newfs doing water rescue.
http://www.cncnewfs.com/WaterRescue.shtml

Seems they're used in Europe a lot. The site says the French Coast Guard has decided that a newf in good condition can tow an inflatable life raft with 20 people inside, 2 miles to shore without being unduly stressed. Cool, right?

Anyway, if you can't find much info on GSD's doing water work, it may be worth it to find out about the newf programs and learn from them.

EDIT: Okay you may be really sick of me talking about newfs, but here's their parent club site talking about the different titles they offer and what the tests are like. It's just interesting if you haven't already read it: http://www.ncanewfs.org/working/water/index.htm