Death of Iran's 'Smartest' Rescue Dog

The Iran newspaper reported the death of 'Doman', a rescue dog from the Red Crescent of East Azerbaijan, who successfully saved the lives of 50 people trapped under rubble and avalanches in 30 operations, due to cancer. In its Saturday issue (April 28), Iran introduced Doman as one of the 'smartest rescue dogs' in incidents and the first dog to perform 'rappel' operations in the Middle East. This 'German Shepherd' was among the most famous working dogs among police and guard dogs. Yashar Shadpour, a Red Crescent rescuer from East Azerbaijan and Doman's trainer, told Iran's Life Group that Doman was a 45-day-old puppy when transferred to the Red Crescent, and training began at 9 months, completing all training by the age of two. Shadpour added that Doman was one of the 'unique' rescue dogs, indicating the location of individuals trapped under rubble with 'minimal error'. He noted that Doman participated in over 30 operations and discovered live individuals under rubble as well as corpses in over 50 cases. According to Shadpour, this rescue dog was 11 years old during the earthquake in August 2012 in Ahar, Haris, and Varzaghan, and was able to find both survivors and the bodies of the deceased. The rescue trainer further introduced Doman as the first dog capable of performing rappel and descent operations in mountainous areas and providing assistance in cross-border operations. He added that on May 3, 2011, in the Bozghosh Sarab area due to an avalanche, a mountaineer went missing while climbing. For the first time in Iran and the Middle East, in a real operation, a dog was able to descend from a height of 86 meters and find the missing person. Doman, whose name means 'mountain mist', was diagnosed with aggressive cancer three weeks ago and passed away last Wednesday. Typically, most rescue dogs are selected from the German Shepherd and Shianlu breeds due to their physical strength and high intelligence. Furthermore, the most important principle of success in employing search dogs in various operations is creating cooperation between the dog and its trainer. Trainers of these dogs believe that the work is effective when the trainer can understand the dog's language by interpreting the signals the dog shows.