A sniffer dog's bark alerted rescuers to a "victim" trapped in a cement crevice at a simulated earthquake site in a Beijing suburb, leading to a successful rescue Monday.
The dog is one of the first batch of search dogs specially trained by the China Military Dog Breeding and Training Center for the China Earthquake and Disaster Emergency Rescue Team.
Trainers say that the dogs, which have passed strict qualification tests, are German and Belgium shepherds and British Labradors. Their six month's training includes search positioning, alarm barking and field rescue.
Specially trained dogs are now widely used worldwide to search for and rescue missing people after disasters such as earthquakes and floods.
(Xinhua News Agency June 3, 2002)
