SANTA PAULA, Calif. (KABC)-- Disaster dogs trained to sniff out people trapped in rubble are being used en masse in Turkey and Syria as the countries continue to recover in the aftermath of Sunday's devastating earthquake.
Some of those rescue dogs are from the Los Angeles area, according to KABC.
Within hours of the earthquake causing massive destruction, the Los Angeles County Fire Department sent its Urban Search and Rescue team, along with six of their K-9s, to the disaster zone.
KABC reported the dogs were all trained at the Search Dog Foundation in Santa Paula.
At the foundation, former rescue dogs who were overlooked in the adoption process become heroes.
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"They are air-scenting dogs that sense the presence of live humans trapped under rubble and other types of disaster materials," Many Tisdale, director of canine behavior and training, told KABC.
The foundation has a vast training ground; the 145 acres simulate a wide variety of disaster scenarios, including tornado and earthquake damage, according to KABC.
"We have a train wreck, we have a collapsed freeway, we try to incorporate as many elements of disaster search as we can," Denise Sanders, another member of the foundation, told KABC. "When those dogs and those handlers go out the door and they step off that plane or that bus at a disaster site, they know what they need to do and they have experienced something similar that they can pull from."
SDF says it trains up to 40 former rescue dogs at its facility, but it takes almost a year for a dog to be ready for a real-world rescue.
Tisdale told KABC she beams with pride when a dog she trained makes an impact out in the field.
"I almost can't describe it. It's a really powerful experience knowing that our teams are out there doing what they've been trained to do - help people on their worst day," Tisdale said.
KABC reports the dogs from SDF arrived in Turkey with their LA county fire department handlers early Wednesday morning.
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