They were preparing for their graduation ceremony on September 19, and then the seismic alert sounded.
After three months of training, 27 dogs received their search dog certificate as part of a training program on Monday, the same day a 7.7 earthquake shook Mexico City.
The first Dog Rescue Workshop held in the Tlalpan mayor's office, in the south of the Mexican capital, trained the animals so that they can track down and find their guardians, relatives and friends in the event of a natural disaster or accident.
As part of the exercises, they managed to travel up to 35 or 40 meters through the undergrowth to meet up with their guardians and avoid traps such as wood, cylinders, bars, earth to locate them.
Another peculiarity of the training was that dogs of different breeds and mestizos were accepted, in an activity that is typically reserved for working breeds.
Among the graduates there were from a Tibetan mastiff to a pug.
Although it is a basic program, the dogs have the option of being channeled to various organizations to become professional in search tasks.
subscribe here
to the
newsletter
of EL PAÍS México and receive all the informative keys of the current affairs of this country
