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Avalanche rescuers in training
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October 27, 2011, By Rebecca Edwards, ARTICLE, ACTIVITIES It takes 18 months of training before dogs and handlers with the Canadian Avalanche Rescue Dogs Association (CARDA) get validation to attend RCMP-organized search and rescue missions. After being accepted in a spring puppy selection, teams go through a week-long winter training course to teach them basic scent and search skills, and then hold ‘intraining’ status for one year, before taking a test to become validated members of CARDA. Ilya Storm and ‘Skeener,’ and Corey Brealey and ‘Orbit,’ are two of the teams-in-training that are currently working toward validation in Whistler in January 2012.
ILYA STORM AND SKEENER Revelstoke As a forecaster for the Canadian Avalanche Centre and a backcountry ski guide, Ilya Storm’s focus has always been helping backcountry skiers avoid avalanches through education and safe terrain choices. Now, as handler of CARDA dog-in-training Nova Scotia Duck Tolling Retriever Skeener, he is focusing on avalanche victim search and rescue. Storm says he decided to take Skeener through CARDA training after realizing she had excellent retrieve and search instincts. “Even though she is a working dog, she is a great pet, too. For her, work is play and play is work – the only difference is that the games we play will help her search for people one day. “I am also working very hard to make sure the strongest bond she has is with me – no other human or dog can be as important to her.”
COREY BREALEY AND ORBIT Whistler Blackcomb Ski Patrol and Squamish Search and Rescue Ski patroller Corey Brealey wasn’t planning to train his mixed-breed dog Orbit as an avalanche rescue dog when he picked him up from the Squamish SPCA shelter. But, says Brealey, Orbit’s Greyhound/Collie/Labrador Retriever bloodlines meant he soon showed a strong search instinct and a willingness to please his master – key instincts for a CARDA dog. “I was always looking for a high-energy dog because I wanted to take him ski touring. Then I was working with Whistler CARDA handler Gwen Milley and she was showing me how she trains her dog ‘Chili.’ She suggested I try a “master runaway” with Orbit, where I ran away from him and he had to find me, and he was a natural. “He has so much fun doing it – his favourite thing is to be searching, and he knows that it makes me happy, too.” Rebecca Edwards is a freelance journalist from Fernie, British Columbia, who became interested in avalanche rescue dogs thanks to a love of skiing and her chocolate Labrador Retriever, ‘Bryn.’ Photos by Todd Weselake This article is exclusive to dogsincanada.com.
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