The using of specially trained civil dogs in rescue operations is relatively new in Finland. Compared to US or Canada we are just taking the first steps on this kind of a training. In Finland the Ministry of the Interior has been controlling the training and testing SAR dogs from 1980. The rules used for testing SAR dogs have been totally changed from the beginning of this year (1997).

So far the main goal has been to gain the needed volume of trained SAR-dogs to cover our whole country. The test used for SAR-dogs has been easy to pass and these tests have gained very much interest during last years. Today the volume is up to date and our governements is satisfied. The FWDA (Finnish Working Dog Association) has earned a remarkable yearly appropriation from The Ministry of the Interior for continuing the work of training SAR-dogs.

There has many overlapping organizations involved in this outstanding work. That's why The Ministry of The Interior made a decision to concentrate all SAR-dog training to one authority. From the beginning of the year 1996 all training and testing is performed by the FWDA .

Now we've reached the needed volume and gained the approval of the authorities. It's time to concentarte to the operational quality of the training. That was the main reason for this complete renewal of the testing systems for SAR-dogs.