Obviously, there’s no point in having a search dog team without search dogs, but they can’t do it by themselves.
In training or in the field, each search dog team is made up of a minimum of three partners: the search dog, the handler, and the flanker. Each partner has a specific job to perform.
The Dog
The search dog‘s job is to take the scent (if discriminating a specific individual), interpret the given command, and act upon it. Using their superior scenting capacity, they are to locate the missing person and lead the handler and flanker to the subject(s). If there are multiple people in the vicinity of the missing person, the dog must clearly alert on the specific individual they were scenting.
The Handler
The handler‘s job is to prepare and start the search dog on their search, control and observe the search dog during the duration of the search, interpret the dog’s body language and carriage for information that can be passed back to base operations, and watch for unsafe conditions along the way. When the search is concluded, the handler must interpret the dog’s alert behavior to correctly identify the missing person.
The Flanker
The flanker is responsible for keeping track of the team’s location, communicating status updates and locations to base operations, and watching for unsafe conditions along the way. The flanker may also watch or call for the missing person as fits the situation.
Others
Other personnel accompanying the search team in the field may include law enforcement or Fire/EMS service personnel, additional flankers, ground searchers, or other persons authorized by the Search Manager and/or the Incident Commander.