I take into account the dog safety, my own safety, the safety of the person that is accompanying me will let be a navigator or a safety person, then the other people involved in the search. Although having the dog the focal point of a safe search appears counterintuitive to overall safety, it's not. The dog is actually setting the pace of the search. So when I'm aware what the dog is currently getting into and where it's head next, my overall situation awareness is at its peak. As a search dog handler, I actually don't search for the missing person. That's the dog's job. If I find somebody during training or even an actual missing person search, this means the dog has a done its job. My job is to watch over the dog while it's searching. I keep a running tally of the areas that the dog has covered and interpret the dog's reactions to the sent being carried along on the wind. While I'm doing all this, foremost of my mind is the dog's safety as it moves through the search area.