Türkiye quakes: ‘Invaluable sniffer dogs are honed for life with joy for toys'

By Riyaz ul Khaliq

ADANA, Türkiye (AA) – Resilience, joy, and physical presence are three important characteristics that nourish a dog into a sniffer K9, commonly known as a police dog, which becomes “invaluable and priceless,” say their handlers.

“The training is life-long,” said Andre Rosa, a top dog handler for Portugal’s National Republican Guard or GNR, who oversaw operations of specially trained canines during post-quake search and rescue by the 52-member team of the southern European nation.

Portugal sent at least six highly trained dogs and their handlers to the southern Hatay province.

In a situation like what happened in Türkiye on Feb. 06, he said: “Time is crucial, so there is a high expectation of sniffer dogs” during the search operation.

The use of K9 dogs has proved critical during the post-quake operations, several international search and rescue teams told Anadolu.

More than 9,000 international search and rescue teams have participated in the post-quake operations, as the death toll climbed to 39,672 on Friday.

- Human smell and joy of toy

Sergeant Filipa, who has been with the GNR since 2017, was honing her nine-year-old canine, Kejisi, when the trained professional dog barked.

She was close to a collapsed building with no access, and the canine was expecting a "reward" from the Portuguese sergeant in return.

“Soon, we heard a voice from below the ground, from the basement of the collapsed building,” Rosa said. “It was by chance.”

“All of us conducted a 360-degree survey of the place with no success, and then we created a path and as a dog trapped beneath the rubble responded to the voice of our canine, we managed to rescue it alive,” he added.

Honed since being a puppy, Rosa told Anadolu outside Adana international airport on the way home, “we pick up the dog and separate it from its mother.”

“We nourish the dog in a varied environment consisting of different lights, different floors, different noises, and different soils,” Portugal’s top dog handler said.

After everyday training in such an environment, he added, “we then do socialization of the dog so that he is not afraid of any human or is not distracted in any chaotic situation like one during disasters when there are a lot of humans and among a lot of barking dogs.”

"We train them to reach the source of the smell that is emanating from a human, whether alive or dead," the Portuguese trainer said, adding that “so, we create an environment in which the wind blows in a specific direction, carrying the human smell, and the dog finds it."

"What motivates the dog to search for and follow the smell is a reward, which in this case is a 'toy,'" he explained.

“Since the early days of its training, the dog is being lured to follow directions so as to get the toy as a reward,” Rosa explained, adding, “It is to reinforce the expected behavior in the dog.”

He stressed that “the sniffer dog finds the human not because of the presence of the human, but because the trainer teaches the dog how to smell about a human.”

The dog is, the trainer said, “continuously reminded of the toy.”

“The dog will begin barking when he smells humans.”

At another place, said Rosa, one of their sniffer dogs indicated the location where a 10-year-old child was trapped. “Soon we rescued the kid,” he added.

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- ‘Invaluable, priceless’

The specially trained K9s for emergency situations like earthquakes aftermath in Türkiye are “invaluable and priceless,” professional dog handlers from Thailand told Anadolu.

“I cannot imagine (any) price,” said Andy, the dog handler from Thailand’s Urban Search and Rescue team that moved out of Türkiye after week-long operations in earthquake-hit southern provinces. “It is very hard to find a trained dog.”

Along with Sue, Andy is part of the Thai team that was in Türkiye since Feb. 10 to search for survivors trapped under the rubble of collapsed and damaged buildings.

The special breed, known as “working line golden retrievers,” are chosen for training after they reach the age of eight months, Sue told Anadolu at Adana as the duo was tending the dogs named, five-year-old Sahara and seven-year-old Sierra.

“They are specially bred for this kind of working, and we spend a lot of time with them to strengthen our bond,” said Andy.

“Proud” of their work, Andy said the dogs showed “a lot of confidence” during search operations.

“We were able to make decisions based on their indication” of any human, dead or alive, trapped under the rubble, he added.

Andy said the Sahara and Sierra need “little command… they know what to do.”

Regarding the food consumed by the dogs during the search and rescue operation, Sue said they brought dry-dehydrated food, which is different from their regular diet and is "quite fine" for a short span of time.

“It is quite fine for seven days,” she said of the canines bought from Sweden by the handler duo.

Rosa said his team follows veterinarians' recommendations on the menu for a sniffer dog.

"A dog's weight is controlled by following a menu for a specific percentage of dog food," he added.

​​The last week’s earthquakes have affected more than 13 million people across Türkiye’s 11 provinces – Kahramanmaras, Hatay, Gaziantep, Adiyaman, Malatya, Adana, Diyarbakir, Kilis, Osmaniye, Sanliurfa and Elazig.

Türkiye has issued a level-4 alert, calling in international aid.

More than 249,000 search and rescue personnel are currently working in the field, according to Turkish Disaster and Emergency Management Presidency (AFAD).

Around 100 countries have offered assistance so far, with many having sent rescue teams.

Besides rescue teams, blankets, tents, food, and psychological support teams, as well as over 12,300 vehicles, including excavators, tractors, and bulldozers, were sent to the affected areas.

Türkiye’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has said the country is facing one of the biggest disasters in its modern history.

Condolences have poured in from around the world expressing solidarity with Türkiye, with many countries sending rescue teams and aid.​​​​​​​