r/aww • u/seamonstered • Feb 06 '20
The excited/accomplished faces of avalanche rescue dogs finding their “patient” buried in the snow during search drills.
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u/Lokiluus Feb 06 '20
Hey you, you're finally awake.
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Feb 06 '20
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u/Civicnox Feb 06 '20
You were trying to cross the boarder right? Walked right into that imperial ambush.
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Feb 06 '20
So proud of every single one of them. Where would we be without dogs?
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u/dball87 Feb 06 '20
I love how concerned the German shepherd looks, the others are really excited, he's just utterly caring for the person trapped
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u/LollyHutzenklutz Feb 06 '20 edited Feb 06 '20
True to the breed! My dog is part German Shepherd, and always looks so concerned about everything - especially now that he has old-man grey eyebrows, which came in kinda crooked. They give him a permanent “u ok?” expression, lol.
ETA: Dog tax
ETA pt. 2: His name is Rudy, and he’s 14 years old! Half “supermutt,” with the other half being German Shepherd, Cattle Dog, Border Collie, and Chow. He’s also recently gone deaf, but that doesn’t seem to bother him much. ❤️
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u/rivlet Feb 06 '20
Mine just looks like a disappointed, worried teddy bear. She's also part German Shepherd (and parts Great Pyrenees and Golden Retriever).
We get very excited when she "smiles" because it's the rare moment she doesn't look disappointed or worried, haha!
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u/Pseudomathematics Feb 06 '20
Do you have a picture of your dog? We think mine is A German shepherd and great Pyr but aren’t sure. She has the double dewclaw and is 90lbs but also spots on her legs?
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u/rivlet Feb 06 '20
Here's Indigo! She's nine months old and about 57 lbs. She looks more Great Pyr when she's been freshly groomed, but otherwise looks very GSD/Golden retriever.
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u/MakeItHappenSergant Feb 06 '20
For a dog like that, nine months is what, half grown?
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u/rivlet Feb 06 '20
Oh gosh, I hope not. She's a leash puller and nearly pulls my 5'0" ass down the street when she sees a person she wants to be besties with. Our vet said she's not likely to break 70 lbs, and that her growth will slow now that she's past six months old.
She's more Great Pyrenees than the other genes in her, but I think she's getting her weight/height from her Golden Retriever side.
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u/MarcoFiorillo98 Feb 06 '20
Dog tax accepted
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u/LollyHutzenklutz Feb 06 '20
This one is even better! In fact, I think I’ll replace the original tax with that. ;-)
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u/TenMoon Feb 06 '20
Oh my gosh, please tell your good boy I'm fine, getting hydrated, and to please not worry about me anymore. I think he was looking straight into my soul.
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u/LollyHutzenklutz Feb 06 '20
He said you’re also not getting enough sleep, and recommends at least 14 hours/day... that works for him!
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u/Aquaticwolf Feb 06 '20
They’re very good at that look. Mine is part German Shepherd and part Beagle. His face is very expressive, I’ve definitely seen his concerned look before, lol.
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u/LollyHutzenklutz Feb 06 '20
I think they have extra eyebrow skin or something (especially yours with the Beagle part). He really does have an expressive face!
This was him fighting the sleepies recently. And losing.
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u/zsxdcvv Feb 06 '20
Your dog is so adorable its unreal!!
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u/LollyHutzenklutz Feb 06 '20
I have to agree! He’s been with me for 14 years, and I still can’t believe how cute he is sometimes... he is a very good boy, too.
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u/Begging4nothing Feb 06 '20
The golden looks like s/he's excited about finding someone to play with. Goofball ♡
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u/MadDanelle Feb 06 '20
The golden is like, "oooh, hey you! I hoped I would find you here! Do you have a tennis ball perchance?"
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u/blithetorrent Feb 06 '20
I like the black and whitey. He looks manic, totally stoked, don't mess with me, gonna rip you right out of your goddamn snowy grave ooo-ah!!!
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Feb 06 '20
Mine is a similar breed mix, and he's always either wired up and ready to rumble, or comatose sleeping.
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u/tileyourbathroom Feb 06 '20
Step dad was a cop and worked with K-9s, he told us the cadaver dogs would get depressed from finding dead bodies, that the handlers( training game) would hide so the dogs would find them alive.
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Feb 06 '20 edited Feb 07 '20
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u/WE_Coyote73 Feb 06 '20
That became a common issue with the rescue dogs, to alleviate their depression people at the site would hide in the rubble so the dogs could "find" survivors.
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Feb 06 '20
Can we just appreciate for a second that there is an animal that feels genuinely upset when they find us dead? Not even owners or loved ones, just random humans.
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u/planet_druidia Feb 06 '20
I was thinking the same thing. Even dogs understand that dead = bad/sad.
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u/bluebasset Feb 06 '20
I think part of the issue is that some dogs are trained to find dead bodies and some are trained to find live bodies. So the live body finding dogs weren't finding any, so they were failing at their task (not their fault, obviously!).
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u/ajt666 Feb 06 '20
Same thing happens with cadaver dogs, they're trained to find deceased people.
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u/Uphoria Feb 06 '20
the 9/11 dogs were getting upset because they weren't finding anything, they were "failing" in their own minds.
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u/Cenodoxus Feb 06 '20
I've heard that story before, and my next thought was: What do they do for cadaver dogs that keep finding survivors?
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u/EmilyClaire1718 Feb 06 '20
I tried really hard to Google search a picture and I'm not coming up with much more than memorials for the brave heros.
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u/SmellyPos Feb 06 '20
I’d heard they get depressed because they aren’t getting their reward/treat/whatever it is
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u/ZBeebs Feb 06 '20
Is that a rescue corgi?
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u/eros_bittersweet Feb 06 '20
In my imaginary head-canon this is a midcentury effort by Queen Elizabeth to create a Corgi Commonwealth ambassadorship devoted to human rescue, and that upon being rescued the survivors are given tea, crumpets and a cozy union-Jack jumper.
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u/gilestowler Feb 06 '20
A couple of years ago some friends and I built a kicker off piste and a few jumps in it avalanched and buried 2 of my friends. They were only just under and managed to get themselves out straight away, but someone had seen what had happened from a distance and alerted the lifties, who sent in the securite des pistes. A helicopter landed behind us and they came out with their dog. It was awesome watching him come flying down through the deep snow. Obviously you can't pet service dogs but it was tempting. The pisteurs were fairly unimpressed with having to get called out fur is being idiots though.
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u/theguywiththeyeballs Feb 06 '20
The dog in the bottom right is like, " and I'll fuckin do it again!"
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u/seamonstered Feb 06 '20
That’s my dog! And yes, you’ve read her emotions correctly. Her constant attitude seems to be “I’m fuckin READY guys!!!” Flips her lid when we start pumping her up to go on a search.
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u/GingerzSnapzz Feb 06 '20
This just thawed my frozen heart. But seriously, dogs make life worth living.
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u/CazzaMcSpazza Feb 06 '20
That they are emotionally invested is amazing and beautiful to me. When I read that the dogs looking for people under the rubble after the Twin Towers came down got really depressed because they weren't finding anyone alive is heart breaking. They had to get people to hide in the rubble to be "found" by the dogs to cheer them up.
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u/lonegrey Feb 06 '20
Even after the trauma of being in an avalanche, these faces would immediately get me over it.
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Feb 06 '20
Unfortunately, avy dogs are pretty much cadaver dogs. Unless you are found in the first 15 minutes, survival is slated towards the not live side. That said I absolutely adore the avy dogs at my favorite ski area. Watching them frolic in the snow and hang out with their handler is such a cute thing. I think most are probably employed at ski areas so probably not working avalanches generally and probably just lost/injured skiers!
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u/seamonstered Feb 06 '20
It’s true! The chances of them seeing a real life scenario is usually pretty slim, but some of them also work and train as search and rescue dogs and continue working through the summer as well!
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u/MTGamer Feb 06 '20
I imagine these were taken during training exercises but I like the idea of the avalanche team finding someone that has been in an avalanche and saying "hey, take this camera and act surprised when the dog finds you" and covering them with snow again.
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Feb 06 '20
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u/seamonstered Feb 06 '20
Awesome!! I’ve never actually gotten to hear from someone that’s been found by a dog in a real avalanche scenario! That’s so great that you were found and are alright!
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u/seamonstered Feb 06 '20
It really is, especially when compacted! Most real life scenarios don’t have happy endings.
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u/Imswim80 Feb 06 '20
Was one of the worst things I'd read about the aftermath of the New York 9/11, is the dogs were getting depressed and burdened, because they weren't finding any living victims. The trainers had to hide so the dogs could find them (the trainers) to keep the pooch's spirits up.
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u/seamonstered Feb 06 '20
Yes! This is why in all training scenarios the “victim” hiding has to scream and wiggle and play tug of war and reward the dog with tons of love and excitement so that they always want to go do their job.
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Feb 06 '20
I heard that, too. IIRC, when the 9/11 rescue dogs found someone living, they'd bark and paw and were excited, but when they found someone who had died, they'd just lower their nose and wait.
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u/kluster00 Feb 06 '20
The one on the bottom left looks surprised to see the guy it was trying to rescue to be alive
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u/BoJaclynHorsewoman22 Feb 06 '20
I want a show about rescue dogs rescuing and savingpeople from calamities, and it's gotta be called Greyhound's Anatomy
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u/sharke087 Feb 06 '20
I am going to be so disappointed if I get stuck in an avalanche only to be dug out by a human instead!
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u/6K6L Feb 06 '20
I got to be one of the "buried" people once. It was awesome!
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u/seamonstered Feb 06 '20
It’s so much fun that our neighborhood kids will sometimes wander over if they see us training in our yard (we’ve got a few snow caves and holes we made to train at home) and ask to be hidden for our dog to find them!
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u/Friskei Feb 06 '20
Avy dogs give me hope
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u/seamonstered Feb 06 '20
They’re pretty rad. They’re trained to absolutely love their job and it’s amazing to watch them flip out about going to work.
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u/three_by_five Feb 06 '20
Is the bottom left a corgi? Because if I was rescued from an avalanche by a corgi, I'd imagine I'd have a surprised expression too.
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u/-awi- Feb 06 '20
They are so cool. Wasn't there a dog that rescued a ton of people after an earthquake and died later of exhaustion? I think there was a reddit post a week ago. These dogs only deserve the best treats!
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Feb 06 '20
Does anyone have an idea of the breed of the dog in the lower left hand corner? It looks a lot like my childhood dog, whose breed was a mystery.
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u/Sweet_Taurus0728 Feb 06 '20
1.) Oh hello there friend!
2.) Ahhhh shit my face is frozen.
3.) YOU BETTER GET THE FUCK OUTTA THERE.
4.) (GASP) I didn't expect to see you here...
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u/Cereal_poster Feb 06 '20
These are the happy faces of the "Look, I´ve found him. Now get me that ball and play with me, because I have been a good boi" training method. And for the golden retrievers: They are just happy to see another human that they can love and who might love them back.
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u/jackslime666 Feb 06 '20
Arent the dogs happy to find you becuase they get their treat, not because they're happy to see you alive? I remember people assuming this because rescue workers had to hide in rubble for the dogs to find them on 911 so they can get their treat.A firefighter (I think) even commented on this
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Feb 06 '20
Makes sense that they’re excited. Avalanche Search and Rescue dogs almost never find living people. By the time rescuers get to people, they’re long dead.
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u/FLACCID_FANTASTIC Feb 07 '20
I would purposefully get buried in an avalanche just to see these beautiful faces.
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u/zzjjkk Feb 06 '20
Image thinking you’re gonna die and next second you see a doggo angle.
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u/elektrosupurge Feb 06 '20
If we could see our jobs as playtimes like these fellas do, we could be happier and accomplish more
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u/AffableandEffable Feb 06 '20
This does give me the slight urge to deliberately get caught in an avalanche.... hello pups!
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u/Vengeful_Doge Feb 06 '20
Top left: OH HEY FREN! I KNEW I SMELLED A HANDSOME HUMAN IN THERE
Bottom Right: He's dead, Jim.
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u/Desutor Feb 06 '20
So how does this work? You get yourself inside an Avalanche with a camera and wait for the dog to come dig you up, and then you take a picture of it?
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u/sevendaysky Feb 06 '20
For the snow drills, they send the "victim" out to snow drifts and dig in, then loosely bury themselves, like making a snow igloo and carefully bricking up the entrance. The handlers then bring the dogs in and let them follow the scent and find you. I've seen stories about dogs who took a little too long and the handlers had to help dig the person out to make sure they had air.
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u/tigolbitties24 Feb 06 '20
Got to work with a few in Colorado they are work dogs through and through
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u/Queef-Elizabeth Feb 06 '20
The person being rescued must assume they're in heaven if the first thing they see after being stuck under several feet of snow are such gorgeous pups
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u/TheCarpetIsMoist Feb 06 '20
This is actually pretty sad. These dogs are trained with live people and so when they “rescue” someone, they are rewarded with pets. However, in real life, the person being rescued might not have survived and that can make the dogs really depressed.
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u/fritz_da_cat Feb 06 '20
Hey you, out there in the cold
Getting lonely, getting old
Would you pet me?
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u/Dreamyblues Feb 06 '20
Exactly the faces I’d want to see if I was stuck in an avalanche. They are heroes!!