groundSAR South Africa

Who are we?

We are volunteers in Search and Rescue.

What do we do?

We train our dogs to find missing people in wilderness areas.

How do our dogs find people?

Our dogs find a person either by using the wind (air scenting) or by following where the person walked (tracking / mantrailing).

Air scenting: the dog works off leash and uses its nose and the wind: the stronger the wind is, the further away a dog can pick up someone’s scent. When the dog picks up scent on the wind, it then follows the scent all the way to the missing person and then returns to call its handler (usually by barking) and show the way back to the missing person.

Mantrailing: the dog works on a long line and uses its nose to follow where the missing person walked. Thus the dog and handler arrive at the missing person together.