r/BeAmazed • u/Separate_Finance_183 • 16h ago
Animal The reaction of search and rescue dogs when they find people buried in snow and rubble during training
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u/Ass_Burner 16h ago
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u/Judas_Maiden 16h ago
The bestest bois deserve the bestest pats
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u/Ylteicc_ 9h ago
What about the bestest girls??
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u/Curiosive 14h ago
It's all fun and games for them during training, possibly during a real rescue too unless they pick up on the seriousness of the humans.
That's not a slight against dogs. We should all be lucky enough to be this happy at work.
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u/AlarmingAffect0 9h ago
possibly during a real rescue too
Not if they keep finding corpses. This genuinely demoralizes them. Or so I heard.
We don't deserve these creatures.
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u/kummerspect 9h ago
I remember hearing something about this after 9/11. The dogs were getting depressed because they were mostly finding corpses. I think the handlers started hiding alive people (other rescuers and first responders) so the dogs could get a win occasionally.
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u/Terrible_turtle_ 16h ago
The joy and relief in seeing that snout coming though the snow must be overwhelming.
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u/Gritty420R 15h ago
You're not gonna see anything until they clear the snow away from your face. Avalanche victims almost never have an air pocket. All the survivor testimonies I've heard discribe being buried like this: it's pitch black, and you're suffocating and coming to terms with dying within minutes.
Buried avalanche victims only have light and air in cartoons.
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u/prismafox 14h ago
So a nightmare situation and an awful way to go. At least there's (hopefully) a chance a good boi/girl will rescue you.
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u/Gritty420R 14h ago
More likely your touring partner(s), but people have been dug out alive.
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u/prismafox 13h ago
I mean.. you could still consider the human rescuers the good boy or girl in that case.
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u/Gritty420R 9h ago
Imagine this, you meet up with your buddy Dave to go for a ski tour. You both looked at the avvy forecast for the day, and there's moderate risk. You and Dave spend some time together on the drive to the trail head. You're both drinking coffee, listening to music, having a good time. You get to the trail head. You and Dave both turn your beacons on, clip in and strap your skins on. A few hours later, after skinning up to your ski objective, you and Dave are ready to drop in. You and Dave rip skins and transition to downhill mode.
You drop in. You make a few turns. You're flying. Then, all of the sudden, you notice snow under your feet crack apart. You're caught in an avalanche. Despite your best efforts, you're caught in the slide. You go under.
Everything is black. You're crushed and immobile under the weight of the avalanche debris. You can't breath. There's nothing to do but make your peace with death. You think of your mother. How could she forgive you for living so recklessly? You think of your father, he will have to mourn you while taking care of your mourning mother.
Suddenly, you feel the poke of your buddy Dave's probe. Amidst the darkness and the crushing pressure of the snow you suddenly think you might live. A few moments later you feel an aluminum shovel press against your thigh. A few seconds later, Dave is able to find your face and clear your airway.
You gasp for the first time after minutes without air. You see the sky, the snow, the mountains, and your buddy Dave, elated that you're OK. You then look to Dave, a grown ass man, and say “good boy, Dave, you're such a good boy. Thanks for saving me!"
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u/C0Ha 3h ago
As a backcountry skier, I’ve done my AVI 1 & 2, and I would rather die in almost any other way than an avalanche. If you’re lucky, you’ll be knocked unconscious by debris. If you’re unlucky, it’s minutes of cold, disoriented suffocation. You don’t know which way is up, you can’t move, you can’t breathe. Absolutely a nightmare situation
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u/Esarus 7h ago
Yeap, and you don't know which way is up. You can't see anything and the pressure is too much to be able to move. It sounds like an awful way to go.
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u/Gritty420R 6h ago
The myth I've encountered is you can spit to know which way is up. However, in reality you're not going to have an air pocket to spit into, and even if you did you wouldn't have the light to see which way your spit falls.
But like you said, a burried victim will be completely immobilized, blinded, and asphyxiated.
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u/Tunamelts-2 14h ago
And James Bond movies
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u/WineNerdAndProud 7h ago
That technology in the James Bond movie was ridiculous but there is somewhat of a real life counterpart to it.
People use avalanche airbags when they're skiing or snowboarding that deploy around your head.
There are a bunch of reasons why they're helpful, one of which being that, the bigger you are, the harder it is for an avalanche to bury you super deep, kind of like how shaking a bucket of rocks brings the biggest ones to the top, not the bottom.
They also can create an air pocket if you get buried, but the one from The World Is Not Enough was waaaaay too flimsy and the separation in the middle would've just collapsed.
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u/mercuriokazooie 15h ago
Then you realize it's a bear
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u/tekko001 12h ago
For slightly different reasons, but I imagine the bear is just as happy as the dogs
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u/pookiemook 16h ago
If the trapped person is conscious
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u/FluxOrbit 15h ago
Yeah you're way more than likely to 1. Not have any sort of air pocket like this, and 2. Be unconscious slowly accumulating brain damage
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u/MrAdzAdzAdzAdz 16h ago
Unless you think it might be a bear or something to begin with...then it would be a brief poo poo in the pantaloons, followed by a little cry.
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u/The_Taint_Whisperer 14h ago
If my ski partner doesn’t find me alive I’ll be long dead by the time the cadaver dog gets there.
They are mainly for ski resort marketing and recovery.
Europe is a bit different because RECCO is used there.
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u/Qbr12 14h ago
I'm American and my ski coats have come with RECCO transponders built in for a while now.
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u/ScuttleScrub3 12h ago edited 9h ago
What does RECCO have to do with anything? Most people skiing off prepared slopes will have an active avalanche rescue beacon on them, which afaik is much more easily traceable than RECCO. In fact, where I live, carrying a lvs beacon is required by law when going skitouring.
The reason you might have more of a survival chance in Europe is that you can have a rescue helicopter at the scene in less than 10min in a good chunk of the Alps. Survival rate starts dropping very drastically at around that time though, so even in Europe, close to a helicopter base, you're mostly reliant on your ski partners.
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u/AlarmingAffect0 9h ago
This is what happens when you find a stranger in the alps.
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u/YeshuasBananaHammock 9h ago
Why TF did i read this in Walter Sobchak's voice??
"You see what happens, Larry, when you FIND a stranger in the ALPS?!"
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u/AlarmingAffect0 8h ago
Yes, that was the intentional reference.
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u/BeNiceOrGoAwayPlease 15h ago
Now I understand why the 9/11 rescue Doggos started feeling depressed when all they could find were the lifeless ones buried under debris
The rescue officials had to be fake "found alive" just so they could restore the Doggos' morale 💖
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u/Hot-Emu8003 6h ago
It's the same for drug dogs, most animals that we employ need to actually succeed at their job sometimes, or they lose motivation and stop doing it. There's a traditional fishing method in parts of Asia using cormorants where they tie a loose ring or cord around the bird's neck so it can't swallow large fish, but every three or four fish, the fishermen have to let it eat one as a reward, otherwise the bird just goes on strike and stops helping. There's even an old saying in Indonesia that orangutans can actually speak, but they choose not to in front of humans because they know we'd just put them to work, haha.
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u/Ambitious-Scallion36 15h ago
Whoa, the comment right above yours at the same time mentions the same 9/11 dog story.
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u/Same-Suggestion-1936 12h ago
I think a lot of us came here to mention it. If you ever want to get fucked up, go listen to the sounds of the emergency distress chirps from the equipment the firefighters were carrying, they beep/chirp when the device detects some shit that should not be happening, that sound is what those rescue dogs are trained to home in on. If you watch video from the rubble it sounds like a field of crickets. The dogs were overwhelmed by the volume of distress calls and then they were distressed because live bodies weren't coming out and they knew that was wrong.
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u/onlycamefortheporn 7h ago
PASS devices. They go into alarm mode if they’re stationary for too long. We always had to shake a little every so often to keep them happy while we were waiting.
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u/CIsForCorn 13h ago
I mean, I came here literally to scroll and see how long it took to find a comment about the 9/11 dogs
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u/Johnny_Utah___ 16h ago
The little sniff of the first one pokin his nose through was great
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u/its_kinda_hmm 14h ago
Meanwhile if mine loses sight of his ball in the grass it may as well never have existed at all.
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u/FunInTheBasement 16h ago edited 15h ago
"YOU'RE NOT GOING TO BELIEVE THIS JEFF!! I DUG UP A FUCKING HOOMAN"
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u/TheJarisaDoor3 16h ago
As a self-proclaimed dog translater, I can assure you with 100% certainty that those barks translated to "They're Here!" ...Glad to be of service.
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u/MontasJinx 16h ago
Can I has treat pls
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u/TheJarisaDoor3 16h ago
True, but only after the appropriate rescue time. Also, I believe the black lab introduced themself upon arrival "Hi hooman, I dog, we here now!"
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u/Ambitious-Scallion36 15h ago
It's fascinating how their arf arf arf's all sound so similar, like that's the universal doggie language for "they're here" just like you said.
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u/TheJarisaDoor3 14h ago
Very similar, but the accents are the challenge. From the Australian Water Dog to the German Shepherd and English Bulldog, don't even get me started.
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u/Over_Ad8762 15h ago
This is a downer comment, but this suddenly made me remember that during 9/11 they had workers pretend to be found victims so the dogs could celebrate a win vs them getting depressed from only finding lost lives ☹️
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u/harrysaxon 14h ago
This isn’t a downer comment IMO.
I think it’s amazing that they were so aware and concerned for the dogs’ mental health that they did this for them.
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u/Over_Ad8762 13h ago
I just googled it and they did a long term study on some of these dogs to observe the effects over time. Thankfully all the pups had a very happy and healthy long life.
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u/harrysaxon 13h ago
So glad to hear that. Thank you for providing more info that those amazing dogs had good lives.
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u/Same-Suggestion-1936 12h ago
First thing I thought of.
Downed emergency responders at the time had devices that would "chirp" as an emergency system to locate downed emergency personnel. The dogs were trained to find those chirps. They were hearing them and couldn't get through any rubble and just weren't recovering any devices or bodies that the dogs were in complete distress. So eventually they started hiding the chirping devices for dogs to find and also resorted to throwing some rubble on still alive responders so the dogs could "find" them and wouldn't freak out.
If any part of that is lost on you as a horrible thing to happen just look on YouTube for videos of it, just search like "9/11 chirps" to hear how many of these devices were going off, this was the dog equivalent to hearing people scream "I need help" over and over and they just weren't getting bodies out and the chirps kept going because it was emergency distress calls on battery, it doesn't stop till the battery dies
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u/sigh_co_matic 11h ago
The sounds of those chirps is absolutely haunting.
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u/Same-Suggestion-1936 11h ago
Even on video it just sounds like a field of crickets. It's no wonder the fucking dogs were on edge, toxins in the area, panicked humans, no real results in saving anybody, and then the noise
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u/rockerscott 7h ago
It’s called a PASS alarm. First responders but particularly firefighters, wear them. If they don’t detect movement for a certain period of time they start “chirping”. Every firefighter that went into those buildings and never came out had a PASS alarm on. I have seen videos of what sounds like hundreds of them going off at the same time several days, possibly weeks after the collapse of the buildings. It’s chilling because each alarm sound you hear is a first responder that didn’t go home that night.
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u/ScreamingLabia 6h ago
There is something seriously wrong with me that thinking about the dogs distress makes me tear up but hearing about 9/11 doesnt. I dont know why, sometimes i find this concerning about myself.
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u/lindisty 6h ago
People are a mixed bag. People, with the capacity for both good and evil, could be awful as easily as they could be amazing.
Dogs have our capacity for good and caring but so much less capacity for evil.
A person might deserve to be in a shitty situation, but dogs never do.
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u/jhill9901 13h ago edited 13h ago
Its crazy. Lived during and watched it happen. Still finding out things about it I never knew.
Edit: terrible wording portraying something I am blessed to not have happen to me
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u/Own-Code-9934 13h ago
Were you one of the survivors??
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u/jhill9901 13h ago
Thank goodness no. Im sorry. Let me correct how I worded that. I NEVER meant to insinuate that.
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u/SkepsisJD 15h ago
Man, dogs really one of the coolest things about human existence. No other animal has ever evolved and adapted the same way as they have. They are so important in our lives and vice versa. It is arguable humans would not be where we are without them.
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u/westisbestmicah 6h ago
Dogs have been with us since the beginning- they were the very first domesticated animal, and by a large margin. It started when we threw food to them while they were lurking around the edges of our campfires.
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u/tryyeezus 9h ago
All animals have adapted incredibly alongside humans and all are equally important to our survival.
Dogs are definitely my favorite though!
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u/HeMiddleStartInT 15h ago
Cause a cat would find you.
They just wouldn’t tell anyone and lick their paws while they stood over your spot
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u/Silent-Ad934 15h ago
"Remember when breakfast was late? Well now it's my turn to be late, Steve. Too late."
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u/R4mst33n 14h ago
"Remember when breakfast was late? Well now it's your turn to be breakfast, Steve."
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u/Legal-Butterscotch-2 15h ago
sad , but true
the cat action if he finds you burried and found that he has something to do that is not lick his pawn because you
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u/Comprehensive_Toe113 10h ago
Sad to know that when 911 happened the handlers had to start hiding in the rubble because the dogs were getting depressed apparently
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u/sakasiru 8h ago
As far as I know, they need to have a success in every search to stay motivated. So even drug sniffing dogs will get to find a drug package hidden by their handler if they don't find a regular (smuggled) one. For dogs these searches are games and the game isn't over until they are successful and got their reward. So while it sounds macabre, it makes total sense that rescue dogs need someone to find at the end of the day.
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u/QuestorPS7 6h ago
Wait, are you telling me that avalanche rescue dogs aren’t Saint Bernards with those barrels on their collars?
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u/uncertaincucumbers 5h ago
Right?! Now my entire world has been turned upside down and idfk what's real anymore lol
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u/awesomedan24 15h ago
After 9/11, there were hundreds of rescue dogs deployed to the wreckage. They found very few survivors and the dogs were getting depressed from their lack of success. So the dog handlers and volunteers pretended to be victims for them to rescue, to lift their spirits so they could keep working.
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u/CornBopper001 5h ago
Man. Dogs are so awesome. I love them so much.
Also, animals never had a war. So who’s the real animals?? 🤨
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u/Nigtharchive 4h ago
Chimpanzees are often at war, and the craziest thing is that they fight on the ground and in the trees, so there are branches and blood flying everywhere.
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u/Lookatthatsass 3h ago
It’s funny how when we do something negative as a species there’s always justification in the fact that other animals do that behavior too, but whenever we do something positively intelligent as a species we use it as a way to separate ourselves from the lesser animals and how we’re so much more advanced.
Humans really love blowing smoke up our own asses
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u/ChrundleTheGrea8 4h ago
Unfortunately larger brain capacity has an expansive effect on all of our best and worst habits. Chimpanzees also have tribal type "wars"
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u/Hahaha2681 16h ago
dog can show you more honest affection with a flick of his/ her tail than a person can gather through a lifetime of handshakes” by Gene Hill
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u/TheFlyingBoxcar 14h ago
I got "rescued" by a USAR dog in the Fire Academy once. Fucker scared the shit outta me, he dropped onto my lap while I was dead asleep in a big drainage pipe I was "trapped" in. Good boi
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u/didijeen 16h ago
We don't deserve dogs. 🥹
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u/Kiel-Ardisglair 14h ago
I would argue that we do, because we made dogs the way they are. We looked at our species’ natural predators and decided that we wanted them to be our closest companions of any other animal. Dogs are humans’ oldest friends, and over the millennia we made them into what we felt would be a good complement to us. Yes, those traits existed in wolves, but we chose to amplify them instead of breeding them out like we did with traits we found undesirable.
So we made dogs, and we made them loyal, and we made them friendly, and playful and diligent and empathetic and self-sacrificing, because those are the qualities that we hold in the highest esteem. We looked at the animal kingdom and asked, “what is the best partnership we could have with any creature?” and we forged a bond that has lasted for most of history. Dogs dedicate their lives to us, and in return, we care for entire generations of them. At our best as a species, we do deserve dogs, because we created them to reflect the best in us.
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u/je386 13h ago
Thats not true. Humans did not make Dogs. Some Wolves where brave and learned that human camps provide food and later even braver ones learned that the campside fire glow keeps predators away and creates a safe zone. When the first proto-dogs approached humans and both accepted each other, the proto-dogs already had domesticated themselves. Being close to humans was an immense evolutionary bonus.
When both got together as partners, both got immense traits from that, each species could give their abilities to form a partnership that seems to be quite unique.
Dogs know we are not Dogs, they have evolved muscles to raise their eyebrows to have their eyes look bigger and more cute to communicate with humans.So, the wolves became proto-dogs by themselves, and those decided that it was worth the risk to approach humans.
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u/SuperCruisePanther 14h ago
Similar to the old "when life gives you lemons, make lemonade" criticism.
Lemons aren't naturally occurring. They were a hybrid created when farmers blended the bitter orange and citron fruits in India 2000 years ago. Life never gave anyone a lemon. We had to make them ourselves!
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u/nightwaterlily 15h ago
Dang it! The song near the end! It suddenly reminded me of the time when the search and rescue dogs of 9/11 felt sad that they’re not finding live humans. 😭
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u/JohnnyStarboard 16h ago
Calling in u/SchnoodleDoodleDo
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u/Ta-veren- 15h ago
I wish I got my dog as a young pup instead of an old girl!
I bet she'd be AMAZING at scent training.
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u/RainSurname 15h ago
The dogs working in the rubble of the World Trade Center got so depressed from only finding dead bodies that people hid in the rubble to give them some wins and cheer them up.
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u/ImmediateClass9650 15h ago
I just showed this video to Maisie, my rescue Lab. She looked at me with a guilty face and said "Dude, if you were buried under an avalanche, I would kinda try to find one of those dogs that would go dig you out...or at least make a couple calls." She loves me!
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u/fricken 8h ago
She said she had recently adopted a rescue dog. She said it wasn't treated very well before she got it. I said "Oh I thought rescue dogs were much loved and well taken care of."
"Not really" She said.
It wasn't until a few hours after the date that it clicked for me. There are rescue dogs, and there are rescue dogs.
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u/Electrical-Penalty44 16h ago
God spelt backwards indeed.
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u/jaxxxtraw 15h ago
I'm a dyslexic, agnostic insomniac.
I lay awake at night wondering if there really is a dog.
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u/AnotherApe33 15h ago
I wonder if in an earthquake for example, rescue dogs can differentiate between someone dead or still alive.
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u/the_liquid_figurine 15h ago
I would assume yes and it's why we use volunteers instead of something just human scented.
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u/PrincessTitan 11h ago
9/11 dogs searching the rubble became depressed at finding only cadavers. The search and rescue teams had to simulate the dogs finding live people because the dogs appeared to be distressed at finding only dead people.
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u/AnotherApe33 10h ago
That is so cool because isn't like they are after a treat, they genuinely want to help people.
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u/RileyRavenSmiles 15h ago
I wonder if they ever recognize they are helping someone in danger and not simply playing an instense game?
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u/jackfreeman 15h ago
That's actually the best thing to see when you're trapped and in peril. An animal whose entire purpose in life is to find you and absolutely loses his shit when he does.
That would feel good even if I died
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u/WoodsLovelyDarkNDeep 15h ago
I know it’s not the case but they honestly looked quite cozy in some of these before the dogs interrupted them
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u/Huckleberry_Hound93 15h ago
I don’t know what these amazing critters are saying, but dog is getting vocal hearing them as well! SOS we need thumbs, send word! 🥹❤️
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u/Equal_Editor8492 15h ago
I've had over a dozen dogs since childhood. Dozens of beautiful memories and heartaches.
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u/RiggityRiggityReckt 14h ago
Look at those sweet puppers ❤️! Almost makes me wanna get trampled by an avalanche just to be rescued lol.
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u/mossimoto11 14h ago
It’s so fun being found. When I was a kid, I got to hide for the bloodhounds to find me. Very fun game of hide and seek. Under snow would be kinda scary though.
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u/Major_Air3083 14h ago
If they knew how helpful they were to us, I'm sure they would still do the same
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u/Pasghettipourn 14h ago
I watch this with my little guy snuggled up against me, sleeping sound. Dogs are just the best part of life.
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