Quantifying Search Dog Effectiveness in a Terrestrial Search and Rescue Environment》.pdf

WILDERNESS ENVIRONMENTAL MEDICINE, 26, 327– 334 (2015) ORIGINAL RESEARCH Quantifying Search Dog Effectiveness in a Terrestrial Search and Rescue Environment Ian Greatbatch, PhD; Rebecca J. Gosling, PhD; Sophie Allen, BS From the Faculty of Science, Engineering and Computing, Kingston University London, London, UK (Dr Greatbatch and Ms Allen); and Surrey Search and Rescue, Surrey, UK (Dr Gosling). Objective.—There is widespread and longstanding use of dogs in land search and rescue (SAR) operations, and their effectiveness is well accepted within the SAR community. However, very little published research exists that quantifies that effectiveness within a realistic SAR environment. Methods.—This study included 25 experiments, conducted between October 2013 and February 2014 with 10 dog/handler pairs, using randomized target placement to calculate the ratio of hits, misses, and false positives per dog. Each dog was fitted with a GPS receiver to record their paths and ambient temperature. Wind strength and humidity were recorded throughout each run. Results.—There was no identifiable correlation between humidity, temperature, or wind speed and effectiveness, but the age of the dog has a small positive correlation. Using a standard effectiveness formula, basic descriptive statistics were generated, which showed that the dogs tested were 76.4% successful overall, with an effectiveness of 62.9%. Dogs covered a mean distance 2.4 times greater than their human handlers but travelled at roughly average human walking speed. Conclusions.—This work represents a first attempt to quantify and understand levels of performance in lowland search dogs, and these results need to be