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msar-riders - [MSAR] K-9 Evac on horseback

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Subject: Mounted search and rescue

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  • From: "Susan J. Duke" <susanjduke@yahoo.com>
  • To: msar-riders@lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: [MSAR] K-9 Evac on horseback
  • Date: Sat, 24 Mar 2007 20:35:24 -0700 (PDT)

I agree with the gentleman that expressed apprehension about having a dog over the saddle or otherwise with the rider.
 
Unless a dog has been trained to a sling-type apparatus (like a SAR dog lift harness for use with ropes to raise or lower the dog somewhere) I can't see a dog tolerating it much.  I've trained dogs to use a SAR lift harness, and about half that try don't like being off the ground with their feet not touching.  Some really panic or freak and struggle against it, they usually aren't the size of lap dogs used to being carried around like a Yorky.  Some are ok with it.  If the dog were unconscious, I would be concerned about spine stabilization, how to do that in case they had a broken back? What if the dog would start to vomit and retch, how would you keep them from choking?  If the dog is bleeding, is the horse going to tolerate that?  There really isn't a good flat place to perch a dog up there other than the saddle seat, and that ain't much.  Some dogs appear to lose their good sense of balance after they get up that high, unless they have specifically trained to climb heights and tolerate moving surfaces.  If you tied a dog on, and the load became unbalanced, would the horse be weirded-out to have an animal strapped on their back?  That is real close to the big-cat pounce on the prey animal thing at some instinct level I would think.  Unless I would see it done successfully, my first guess that the risk to both animals and the rider would outweigh using the old-fashioned sling stretcher and two people walking.
 
Susan J. Duke
Central Illinois


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