TORONTO - Search-and-rescue dogs mounted with two-way cameras will revolutionize how lives are saved during a 9/11-scale crisis, says a canine handler and constable with Ontario's elite Provincial Emergency Response Team.
"What's great about a dog is that they can actually get into smaller spaces; they can search much more effectively with their nose," Const. Kevin Barnum said as he crouched in the debris of Toronto's half-demolished Regal Constellation hotel with his rescue dog Dare.
"With the camera it allows us a proper mapping system and you can actually know exactly where the victim is and what we have to expect as rescuers."
"I truly believe that this could revolutionize search-and-rescue dogs."
The camera-mounted harness, which now sports two pan-and-tilt infrared lenses on either side of the dog, was subject to ridicule until they found a model that worked, said Ryerson University professor and project leader Alex Ferworn.
"At first? People thought it was a horrible idea," Ferworn said with a laugh.
"People don't see the relationship between the technology and the animal . . . and as soon as I wanted to mount something on a dog, it became a huge problem."
Among the skeptics was Const. Mike Dallaire, another dog handler with the PERT team, who said he thought the head-mounted camera - an early version of the technology - would hurt his dog's performance.
"There were a few days when the dogs didn't perform very well," said Dallaire. "Right away, I'm thinking, 'Scapegoat. I'm going to eliminate the newest distraction,' and I felt myself getting closed-minded."
In a sometimes painful testing process, they went through nine versions of the harness, and one of his biggest challenges was working with his canine models, said Ferworn.
"We joke, we call it 'dog-ernomics', because dogs don't react (the way) people do," he said. "People don't generally take a camera, shake it violently and rub it on the floor, so our equipment is tested to destruction."
But once they tested their current neon-green side-mounted harness, which they hope to equip with two-way audio, he said there was no looking back.
Earlier this year, when Toronto's Heavy Urban Search and Rescue team simulated a real-time disaster as part of their annual exercises, Barnum said they were extremely happy at how well the technology worked.
"We now have live-eye view of exactly what the dog sees, so we can cover so much ground based on seeing through the dogs' eyes," he said of his six-year-old black Labrador retriever.
"Dare's so much faster; he can move through areas that it might take days or weeks with humans, he could take minutes or hours."
As a result, the unit was recently singled out for an award of merit by the 2007 Showcase Ontario Awards, where they also won a project achievement award for excellence.
Most of the success of the program is the result of the persistence of Barnum and Ferworn, said Dallaire, but more importantly, the harness and dog combination could be saving lives in the very near future.
"The probability of locating people and successfully getting them out of situations alive is just going to be awesome," he said.
"If there's a tragedy that happens, we will be using it. I can guarantee you that the unit will be onsite with Kevin and myself."
Barnum said his goal is for Ontario's police force is to have one dog from each of the province's 27 two-dog teams wearing one of the harnesses within a year, although has no idea what each might cost, with potential expenses running into the thousands.
Despite a hefty price, it is critically important that the province invest in the technology once it becomes fully operational, he said.
"This technology doesn't take up space in the 1/8rescue 3/8 truck, and if you have it, you can do things with it that you couldn't do otherwise," said Barnum.
"Is it worth it? If it saves some lives, of course it is."
