Digestible Dog NewsNips™

HERO DOGS OF THAILAND

Search and Rescue dogs working in Bangkok Thailand also comfort families who desperately need emotional support as survivors watch their tower collapse.

Barbara "BJ" Andrews, SAAB Member

April 16, 2025

After days of intensely exhaustive work, the rescue dogs switched roles to provide emotional support to grieving families. Two of the search dogs were Golden Retrievers, a breed known for its instinctive understanding of human sorrow.

Dogs sense their owner’s moods and emotions. Many handlers acknowledge that S&R dogs become exhausted after four days of sniffing for signs of life. Perhaps they are worn down by the sadness that surrounds them. It seems to be as emotionally exhausting on the dogs as it is for the handlers.

Canine Search and Rescue teams say the dogs seem to sense their duty to find a person in a mountain of rubble - all that was left after left after the building collapsed in last week’s earthquake.

One rescuer reported “an uncanny understanding between the search dogs and the families of some of the 72 still missing.”

When Hurricane Helene struck the mountains of North Carolina there were massive landslides. The Rescue dogs seemed to sense not only the risk of disturbing the unsettled earth but the urgency as well. Handlers reported their dogs worked “exceedingly well” under tedious conditions. One rescue worker said, “My dog “never worked better he did than on that slippery shale.”

As for Thailand, Reuters reported workers “Switched roles briefly on Wednesday to provide emotional support following five days spent sniffing for signs of life in a mountain of rubble left after a tower crumbled in last week's earthquake.”

Indeed, that applies to the search dogs as well as their handlers. Do the dogs know what they are doing? Yes. Just as your dog senses your sadness when a friend dies, S&R dogs not only pick up on the handler’s urgency but also the sadness when a corpse is found instead of a survivor.

The collapse of Bangkok’s high-rise building was one of the worst disasters this year but the rescue teams, human and canine, were outstandingly brave in saving survivors.

The earthquake left more than buildings destroyed but without the search dogs AND the comfort dogs, this story would be even sadder…

TheDogPress.com EST 2002 © Apr 2025 https://www.thedogpress.com/NewsNips/Hero-Dogs-of-Thailand-b25A041.asp

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