Optimizing Search and Rescue Canine Welfare and Performance

Abstract

Despite technological advancements, Search and Rescue (SAR) dogs remain essential in disaster response and locating missing persons. However, their unique physiological and psychological needs are often underappreciated, insufficiently understood, or deprioritized in favor of mission objectives. In this dissertation, I apply the tactical athlete framework, commonly used for military personnel and first responders, to SAR dogs, emphasizing the role of physical conditioning in promoting stress resilience and optimizing performance. Initially, we surveyed 192 SAR handlers to assess their perceptions of frustration, arousal, and stress, their sources, and the role of physical conditioning in mitigating their effects. While over 50% of handlers engaged in regular physical conditioning outside of SAR training, many handlers lacked an accurate measure of their SAR dog's physical fitness, a challenge similar to that faced by humans, who increasingly rely on wearable technology, such as smartwatches, to optimize conditioning and monitor physiological responses. To explore practical physiological monitoring methods, we conducted a validation study comparing a medical-grade electrocardiogram (ECG) with two commercially available heart rate monitors (Polar H10 and PetPace) to evaluate their suitability for SAR operational settings. These findings provide valuable insight into the feasibility and accuracy of wearable biometric monitoring for SAR dogs. Many handlers also acknowledged in the survey that frustration occurs in SAR dogs; however, they did not directly associate frustration with stress. Research defines frustration as an emotional response to a blocked goal and considers it a negative welfare state. Survey findings indicated that handlers frequently use frustration in training to elicit desired behaviors and prepare SAR dogs for real-world scenarios. We investigated whether frustration, a psychological stressor, results in measurable changes in performance and well-being, distinct from physiological stress caused by exercise. We found that elevated frustration could be identified through biometric monitoring and was behaviorally associated with decreased performance. Finally, we explored whether SAR dogs could benefit from the K9 tactical athlete concept beyond the expected improvements in endurance and strength. While many handlers in our survey reported engaging in weekly physical conditioning, responses indicated that many did not explicitly recognize its psychological benefits. We applied the K9 tactical athlete framework in a 7-week conditioning program to examine this further. Dogs that demonstrated improved physical fitness also enhanced performance in stress-inducing search tasks. Collectively, this research underscores the need for accessible handler education and technology to support the monitoring and interpretation of SAR dogs' physiological and psychological states. Furthermore, these findings contribute to the scientific understanding of stress responses in SAR dogs and propose methods to mitigate the stress response, thereby optimizing welfare and operational effectiveness in these critical working dogs.