Page 20 - Chiron Spring/Summer 2023

High Assurance Search Dog Course
by LCpl Sanders
The High Assurance Search Dog (HASD) course teaches students how to handle and maintain the High Assurance Search (HAS) Capability. By the end of the course, the students will be able to use a HASD to search a variety of areas.
The High Assurance Search Dog is trained to indicate on a range of target scents, the handler will use lines to control the dog in a straight- line search in high threat areas, this specific form of searching is highly effective at decreasing risk and increases safety for our forces.
OPERATION SCENARIOS
The High Assurance Search Dog course is currently adapting to the Train as we Would Fight (TAWWF) direction by adding current and realistic scenario-based training taken from regularly received and updated IntSum reports. This allows for lots of realism and relevance specific to the HASD scenarios used during the later environmental stages of the course. This delivery
of scenarios gives the student real- world experience through training which can be applied when back at the unit and improves the ability of the HASD handler to blend
the technical with the tactical requirements of Ops.
INTERPRETING THE BRIEF
The students will be given an overarching scenario brief before entering the environmental training
week. This will provide them
with information on taskings and operational needs of the dog handler. They will use this material and
apply it to their searches when on the ground. The data from the main brief and scenario-specific briefs
will give the student important facts they need to conduct their search as effectively and safely as possible.
This info is imperative for the student to understand and apply practically to their search so that there are no mistakes, and a good knowledge of the scenario and threat is understood.
TRAINING
On the HASD course, students need to understand the fundamentals
of operational searching but also recognize and conduct corrective
or Continuation Training (CT) with their high-assurance search dogs. This exercise enables handlers to maintain their dog’s ability to search and improves the dog’s ability and
standards of efficiency (SoE) over time.
There are many ways in which the handlers can conduct CT, and these changes depend on the individual requirement of each dog and the environments needed to train in.
SUMMARY
By the end of this course, the student will be a fully trained HASD Handler with the ability to maneuver and
use a HASD to search a variety of areas. They will have experienced real-world scenarios, be able to extract information from a brief, and apply that knowledge to the required search on the ground.
The students will have a good understanding of different types of Continuation Training for the High Assurance Search Dog capability and will be able to conduct this training practically. All these skills and experiences give the student the capability of a High Assurance Search Dog handler.
18 / Chiron Calling