SES canine teams a popular attraction

There was an emergency services focus at this year’s Woolorama, with the State Emergency Service canines on hand.

The canine teams help WA police to search for missing people, and handlers and their dogs are trained for area search and rescue, and scent-specific tracking search and rescue.

The SES canine unit demonstrations started near the front of the program on Friday morning with SES rescue dog Jackson delighting the audience.

Dog handler Scott Campbell said the volunteer search and rescue specialist unit was deployed by police when a civilian went missing.

He said any working dog was suitable for the job. However, it took about two years to train dogs for search and rescue with about 10 per cent making it through.