Someone gives SAR folks a merit badge and they consider themselves expert trackers, if SAR wanted to do all they could, then where was everyone from SAR today (Friday)? That trailhead seemed awfully devoid of SAR? Where were the dogs Wednesday when the scent was freshest?
The scent is FRESHEST when the dog smells the "subject". If you understood Search and Rescue in Arizona, you would know that very few are Search dogs here are trailing dogs. Instead, the vast majority are trained Wilderness Airscent dogs.
I would ignore the chidings of power-mongering SAR folks.
Wow.....such vitriol towards people who volunteer their free time and personal expenses to train and search for lost people they have never met.
If you are NOT trained in SaR there are plenty of specifics that you will not understand about a SEARCH. One of those specifics was what the SaR commander mentioned regarding the dog teams.
In Arizona, most search dogs are TRAINED AIR SCENT dogs.This means they are trained to cover VERY LARGE areas by "finding" and "alerting" on ANY human scent they find while covering the "grid" the dog team is sent to work. But these dogs are NOT robots. A "find" is their reward.
So........the more "finds" they have each time they come across "volunteers" instead of the real "missing person"......the less enthusiasm the dogs will have for searching a rugged area where they have already been rewarded for their "find".
What the commander was politely trying to explain was that having you in the area is likely to impede the work of his trained canine resources. Being there can can also make the dog "miss" the subject. Remember, the dog is taught to hunt down any human scent. Should it being getting more than one "hit" in the search at the same time, it will have to chose one. Do you want the dog to chose you instead of the subject?
(Once the dog gets the "reward" the game is over until the handler restarts the game.)......By that time, you are relying on possible shifts of wind conditions and other environmental factors as to whether the dog gets a new "hit" on the real "subject" once the game starts again.
Having trained search dog for seven years, I could give you plenty of other ugly scenarios but the basic gist of the situation is, should any of you end up in an area search dog is clearing, there are plenty of ways you will end up impeding the search efforts.
And as good as you may be.......a dog can cover an area in mere hours......that would take us humans (without dogs) DAYS to cover......and the dog typically will have searched the area more thoroughly than us humans.
So,the commander requesting that you not throw yourself into the search was not due to his big ego. If anything, it was out of concern for you, his subject and his resources.....not necessarily in that order.
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