How the National Disaster Search Dog Foundation trains dogs for search and rescue missions

VENTURA COUNTY, Calif. - A vital part of the search and recovery effort on Maui includes a specifically trained crew. 

They can easily climb up and over rubble, they can even find the smallest piece of human remains. 

Their primary tool? Their nose. 

At the National Disaster Search Dog Foundation, this is where a dog can go from ordinary to extraordinary. 

It's where a shelter dog can go from discarded to a career.            

The lesson for this freshman candidate - find the hiding trainer. 

The dog's nose knows - but he must do more than bark. The dog gets no reward until the dog barks at the small hole. 

This is the area called "search city." 

The dogs with more training head over to the rubble pile. 

There are multiple spots where a trainer can hide. 

Watch how Hawthorne handles the search. 

Train wrecks, a bridge collapse, car accidents - they're all scenarios that dogs train for - nearly every imaginable disaster.

There are a lot of different rescue scenarios in this fairly limited space.

SDF dogs helped find victims under the earthquake rubble in Turkey. 

They went house to house to find victims after Hurricane Ian hit Florida. 

They even flew to Haiti to help with quake recovery. 

That's just three deployments since this training facility opened 15 years ago. To think what looks like tough training is really a game of hide and seek.

"It's a game for them. They have a blast doing it." 

To learn more, visit searchdogfoundation.org.

You can also sponsor a search dog. To learn more, tap or click here.