Annual report 2025
REDOG helps buried and missing people: by providing training for teams with search and rescue dogs as well as specialists in technical detection. Official agencies and private individuals can contact REDOG around the clock on 0844 441 144.
During 2025 we were involved in 15 deployments in Switzerland. The rescue dog teams searched for missing persons and supported their families in emergency situations. One exceptional deployment took place following the glacier collapse in Blatten.
The REDOG search teams never know exactly what to expect during a deployment. What counts is finding the people the families have been searching for. What counts is reuniting families. So that grandparents, parents and children can again sit around a table and laugh together. Or hug and comfort each other.
Glacier collapse in Blatten
It was predicted. A long time in advance. But when the Blatten glacier in the Lötschental valley collapsed, Switzerland held its breath. Blatten disappeared under rocks, rubble and ice. And the one thing no-one thought was possible quickly became a certainty: someone was still missing.
Experienced rescue dog handlers were immediately ready for deployment in the Lötschental valley. They were flown to the search area by helicopter with their rescue dogs. However, the Lonza river threatened to burst through the rubble dam. The search had to be called off and the area blocked off, even for rescue teams. The scree, up to 100 metres high in places, was unstable. The situation was unpredictable.
Missing in Switzerland
Our rescue dog teams start their search in the place where someone is missing. For whatever reason, they always do their best. Whether they are looking for hikers, mushroom pickers, joggers or persons with dementia.
In 2025, the REDOG teams and their dogs were deployed 13 times in Switzerland because a family member had alerted the police or REDOG directly. And just as many alerts were resolved by the operational leadership team in collaboration with the police. There were different reasons why the search team was not deployed in these cases. For example, if the last known location of the missing person could not be established.
Anyone searching for a missing person can contact us anytime through the emergency number. Our service is free of charge – and we are happy to help.
Our emergency number for reporting a missing person is: 0844 441 144
Training of REDOG Team
REDOG, the Swiss Association for Search and Rescue Dogs, is the only Swiss organisation that provides comprehensive training for dog and handler rescue teams for missing and buried persons.
Useful information on training
In 2025, 9 teams successfully completed training in area searches. 1 teams achieved deployability in the discipline of tracking dogs. With 55 teams and 103 search & rescue helpers, REDOG has a dog unit that is on standby to search for missing persons in Switzerland.
Our area search teams train where people are located: hiking and biking in the foothills of the Alps, collecting mushrooms in forests, walking in the city. Training takes a lot of time. It usually takes between two and four years for a team consisting of dog handler and dog to be ready for deployment. When they achieve deployment capability, this must be regularly confirmed with examinations. REDOG thus ensures that the deployed teams meet the high quality demands.
To establish deployment capability, the teamwork of the dog and the handler and their success in finding hidden persons and items are assessed over one day. They must demonstrate their skills in the technical areas of orientation, first aid and mountaineering technique.
Image gallery
Area search
Search & Rescue
Tracking Dogs/Mantrail
In 2025, 19 teams successfully completed training to become a rubble search team. 3 specialists in technical detection can now be deployed. The REDOG standby team comprises 57 teams for rubble searching, 3 teams for cadaver searching and 12 specialists in technical detection.
Training for the demanding, and often dangerous, task of searching for persons buried under rubble following an earthquake, for example, takes a long time. The REDOG members train for three, or often even four or five years, and then demonstrate their skills and knowledge for deployability during a two-day examination.
Over eleven different rubble areas within the Swiss Army training village, they have the task of locating “victims” - REDOG members who are hidden under the rubble - and providing first aid on site for persons and for the dog. The deployable teams must also pass a suitability test each year, repeat the deployability test every three years, and must obtain consent from their employer as they may be called out from work in case of emergency.
Image gallery
Rubble search
Cadaver search
Technical detection
REDOG - the film
Dedication, passion and 100% trust. The extraordinary bond between dog and rescue dog handler is what defines REDOG. Because when deployment begins, only one thing matters: my dog trusts me. And I trust my dog.
Facts & Figures 2024
802
volunteers got involved from across Switzerland in 12 regional groups.
113,828
hours of unpaid work were carried out by REDOG volunteers in 2025. They train for deployment in a terrain or rubble search. They work for the association. They train young members who benefit from their experience. They help in the organisation of training, test preparation and as assessors.
255
dog handlers, search & rescue helpers, team leaders, and also specialists in technical detection are on standby.
15
deployments were carried out by the REDOG search and rescue dog teams in 2025 to look for missing persons in the open country and under rubble.
81 695
hours of training were completed by the REDOG volunteers during 2025 – in the disciplines of terrain search, mantrailing, person tracking dogs, search & rescue, technical detection, and also searching for living and deceased persons under rubble.
2400
paws train with our dog handlers for deployment in searching for missing or buried persons.
Institutional donors and partners
REDOG can only carry out its work thanks to the valuable support of numerous authorities, companies and foundations. In this context, a film was created in 2024 which shows our collaboration with Land Rover.
Governance and Finances
Organisation and Management 2025
REDOG is a charitable non-profit organisation and the umbrella organisation for 12 regional groups. The Assembly of Delegates elected new leaders for the missing persons division: Michel Jopp and Brigitte Ochensberger. The delegates Andi Flück and Mike Wüthrich received loud thanks and an even louder round of applause as they took their leave.
Finances 2025
The financial statements are prepared in accordance with the Swiss GAAP FER (specifically FER 21) recommendations for accounting and the Zewo guidelines.
Our values
Using dogs to save lives – minimising suffering
REDOG is a humanitarian search and rescue organisation. We help disaster victims and missing persons and their families in accordance with the fundamental principles of the Red Cross.
International and national cooperation
Joint training with partner organisations and personal contact are essential for optimum collaboration. REDOG maintains intensive contacts in Switzerland and abroad.
The Technical Detection REDOG team trained twice with their colleagues. Specialists from Germany, Estonia and Austria met near Munich to work with the equipment and to discuss the interfaces for the exploration, assessment and triage of deployment sites. REDOG welcomed German colleagues from the Bundesverband Rettungshunde and @fire, the international disaster response organisation, to their practice sites in Switzerland. In summer, the cadaver search teams trained with the Freiburg search dog squadron. The REDOG search dog teams also trained with the partner organisations GEA in Turkey and DRDN in Japan.