D.O.G.S. North teams are prepared to respond for missing persons in wilderness, rural or urban settings. The sooner the teams are on the site the better their chance of locating the subject quickly. Although they are trained to discriminate between different people, it is much easier for them if the number of different human scents is kept to a minimum. That does not mean that no one should look for the subject until the dogs arrive, but the sooner the teams arrive the better.
D.O.G.S. North teams have been successfully used to locate lost hunters, berry pickers, mentally impaired individuals, lost children, and walk-aways from nursing homes. They have also located bodies both on land and drowning victims, as well as avalanche victims.
Due to the fact that dogs primarily use their nose, the lack of light at night is not a problem for them. Thus, especially in cases of high urgency, the use of search dogs at night, can make the difference between finding a lost person and a body recovery.
The team has been in the area for almost a decade and has had many successful searches. The team meets several times a month at locations near Houghton. D.O.G.S North also sponsors dog obedience and puppy orientation classes every spring.
All of the handlers for D.O.G.S. North are required to read Sandy Bryson's book Search Dog Training, which Sally Santeford considers to be far superior to anything else out there. The handlers are also reccommended to read other works for a broader understanding of the subject.
For information on how to be a subject/victim for a canine search please see Hey Kevin, Get Lost, a very brief and evolving guide.
D.O.G.S. North Standards a brief review of what D.O.G.S North trains towards
Operational Search Dog Development: The Foundation by Sally Santeford. A 22 pg. paper describing the basics of search dogs and how to train a puppy.