Connor McDowell
Local Journalism Initiative Reporter
Brandon Sun
A disaster training site in Brandon was used to certify search-and-rescue dogs from across Western Canada on Thursday.
The practical training site for Manitoba Emergency Services College hosted teams from Calgary and Vancouver, along with some officers from Brandon Police Service.
The site at the Brandon Municipal Airport saw K9 handlers testing obedience, locating human victims in a rubble pile and rappelling down the side of a building.
Bob Sandher, a Vancouver police officer and team lead for the K9 urban search and rescue in Vancouver, said the visit to Brandon mimicked a real-world scenario compared to training at home.
“The air is different, the hiding spots are different,” he said. “It really simulates a deployment.”
Brandon’s facility, he said, offers two key features — a simulated building collapse, and a simulated bridge collapse. And so the trip out to Brandon is mostly driven by the quality of its facility.
“The biggest part is, the land out here, the training site here is the best rubble pile in Canada.”
The site allows for tests on K9 units’ ability to track humans inside of collapsed buildings. There are various hiding places underneath the rubble in Brandon, where people sit and wait to be found by dogs as part of the exercise.
To be certified, the search-and-rescue dogs must track the scent to the person and then bark for 30 seconds. If the dog misses two people, the unit fails.
Vancouver police officer and K9 search-and-rescue handler Canon Wong passed the test on Thursday morning. He said it was a bit unsettling not knowing how many people were hiding, and having the time limit set at 20 minutes.
“You’re confident in your dog, but it’s still a test,” Wong told the Sun. “There’s a layer of test anxiety.”
A strategy to find people in the rubble pile is to go downwind of it, said Brandon Police Service Const. Justin Artibise. He also received his certification this week with K9 Blink, and took on an extra challenge with Wong and other handlers from Calgary and Vancouver.
In the late morning, the handlers rappelled off the side of a practice building with their dogs. It was a voluntary procedure, but it’s important to get comfortable doing things in case they pop up, said Wong.
Wong told the Sun it’s the fourth time he has descended off a building by rope with his dog strapped on. But after touching down on Thursday monring, he said every time is a learning experience dealing with that discomfort.
“Once you start looking over the edge, that’s when you start getting a bit nervous,” Wong said. “That’s part of the training — stress inoculation.”
His colleague, Const. Colin Naismith from the Vancouver-area Canada Task Force, showcased a bit more comfort on Thursday morning when he descended the building with two dogs at once, and again while walking down the wall like Spider-Man.
Rappelling may be rarely needed, but it is one of many skills ready to be used in rare situations, said Jay Palmer, a Brandon local who works as the national K9 lead for the Canada Task Force.
Palmer, who designed the rubble pile in Brandon, explained that the K9 units are one of many responders ready for deployment. The task force has a strong web of professionals, including doctors, veterinarians, carpenters and welders, who are training to navigate disaster sites, he said. And they are prepared to be supported by assets like mobile kitchens, sleeping areas, eating areas and shower areas that are prepared to be transported to disaster sites.
“We’re here in case there is any natural disaster that happens anywhere in Canada,” Palmer told the Sun. “We call it response ready.”
At a collapsed building, it might take a welder and a carpenter to build a structure that supports rappelling to a victim, he said. And in the other case, the team may need to exit the site by rappelling in a tight squeeze.
“If something happens, you want to be able to load your dogs and go and do what you do,” he said. “You don’t want any problems.”
Palmer said the response team gained a lot of momentum following the 9/11 terrorist attacks in New York City. And the dogs that take part in the Canada Task Force are named after victims of that tragedy.
Last month, the Canada Task Force K9 search-and-rescue team from Halifax came out to train and certify at the Brandon facility as well.
