COLUMBIA BASIN SEARCH DOGS

Our dogs deploy at all times of the year, in all kinds of weather. In Summer we can find ourselves challenged with keeping the dogs contained safely when they are awaiting deployment or training times during the Summer. Shade can be limited, or non-existent. We are seeking funding for a deployment vehicle that can be used off road on logging/dirt roads, can tow our small search boat, and can accommodate a climate control system. Our plan is to look at used ambulances or similar vehicles, and use a generator based system for running an air condition unit. The vehicle would be outfitted with crates and fans, a water tank, portable toilet and cots, as well as power for a small command station from which we could print maps, and serve as temporary command until a county response team arrives. This vehicle would also enable us to have more outreach for community events for demonstrations and raising community awareness about back country safety, by allowing us to participate in the many Summer events that occur in the Columbia Basin region, such as County fairs,

Search K9s that work in area search, human remains detection, or evidence search work off lead, and can cover large areas of land while their handlers and support team walk in a grid pattern, or follow terrain features, such as roads, ridge lines or trails. Handlers carry a gps unit that records their path of travel, and provide this data to search commanders to map areas of coverage by searchers. Our team desires to procure gps collars and receiver systems (such as Garmin for multi-dog teams) so that our data submittals to search leaders will include the data of where our dogs have searched, instead of just the data for where the handlers have walked. This will support search leaders in creating more effective search strategies for ongoing operations.

Search and Rescue is an expensive endeavor, particularly so for K9 teams. Our efforts are 100% voluntary, and equipment is purchased by handlers for themselves and their dogs. Participation in training, seminars and certification events is self funded as well.

K9 handlers and their dogs train 2-3 days per week, and require the support of fellow team members to effectively train dogs. As a regional unit with membership largely coming from very rural areas, this means that our training can require 2-3 hours of driving each way. This also means that coming together for seminars and certification events requires lodging or camping for all attendees and instructors.

Our Volunteering is Affordable program is a program designed to ensure handlers and support team members can fully participate in serving in Search and Rescue. We endeavor to establish three programmatic support models.

The first is a fuel reimburse model for handlers for a portion of their fuel to and from team events, based on mileage.

The second is a funding model for seminars that will either fund a seminar for all members to attend, including travel and lodging, or provide tuition to a handler to attend an out of area seminar, and bring back knowledge to share in a team sponsored intensive training event.

The third programmatic model will be to fund our annual certification event(s). Our team has sponsored two regional events thus far, and has had to open up the event to outside teams to make these events affordable. Our cost sharing model enables all participants to the opportunity to certify their dogs with a National or International agency for each discipline they train in. We would like fund this annual event for our team to include both seminar and certification testing, at no cost to our members. Having an opportunity to close the event to only Columbia Basin Search Dogs would enable us to have more valuable training time with the Master Trainers that test us. With sufficient funding, we could also extend this opportunity to other regional teams for a nominal fee.