Sniff and rescue: A unique opportunity

By Denice Thibodeau

Published: August 17, 2008

When someone is lost, often their best hope of being found is through the noses of very special dogs with search and rescue (SAR) training.

For years, Joanne Kuchinski and Annie Clark, of Pittsylvania County, have been training their dogs in search-and-rescue procedures in hopes of becoming accredited.

Kuchinski said the closest rescue dogs are four hours away from the Danville-Pittsylvania County area. She and Clark dream of having dogs ready locally to respond to crisis situations.

Accreditation is taking a long time since they are training the dogs for “trailing,” a scent-specific search that leads the dog to a specific person, and Virginia currently doesn’t have an accreditation process for that type of search.

Kuchinski said there are dogs in Virginia who track (find every single person in the woods on days they are looking for someone) or have cadaver search training. Kuchinski and Clark, however, want their dogs to narrow the search using the trailing method.

On Sunday, they and the six others who have joined them for training were in the woods surrounding Hargrave Military Academy, giving the dogs opportunities to search for volunteers who had hidden themselves in the woods.

The different dogs all got turns to take a good sniff at a piece of clothing previously worn by a volunteer, then take off and find them.

Ginger, a Belgian Malinous owned by Clark, has had the most training.

“She and Logan (one of Kuchinski’s dogs) will probably pass the accreditation test as soon as it’s finalized,” Kuchinski said.

The dogs also have continuous obedience and agility training, and will have to pass temperament tests. The handlers will also have to pass tests proving they can work with maps and compasses.

Then the team will be tested in their trailing ability, in both rural and urban settings.

Kuchinski said she and Clark have been working with Virginia Department of Emergency Management to get accreditation standards set, and hopes they will be passed in the beginning of 2009.

In the meantime, the dogs and their handlers keep training, all at their own expense.

“This is a volunteer group; we’ve all committed to doing this with our own money,” Kuckinski said.

She did get a grant from the Community Foundation of the Piedmont for some of Logan’s training, and is constantly looking for other ways to raise money to cover some of the group’s costs.

“It’s hard sometimes, and to get certified we’ll have to have radios and some other things we don’t have yet,” she said. Right now, they are trying to raise enough money to pay the $300 fee for registering the group, which they call ATT Search and Rescue Dogs, as a non-profit.

They also are constantly looking for volunteer “victims,” to come to the training sessions at different locations and hide from the dogs.

For more information about the group, or to become a volunteer, call (434) 724-2527 or email

Contact Denice Thibodeau at or (434) 791-7985.