There are images that stick in Trish Riswold's mind.

The look of bewilderment on the faces of Haitian children, the tears running unchecked down their faces, the apartment building without walls revealing the dead couple hanging out of bed.

"You wanted to put the children on the bus and take them with you, but you couldn't even give them a bottle of water because there was not enough for everyone," she said.

Riswold and her seven-year-old golden retriever, Piper, members of the Canadian Search and Disaster Dogs Association, returned to Canada Sunday after spending two intense days searching for survivors in Port-au-Prince, Haiti's devastated capital.

Four dog-handler teams from the association went to Haiti. They returned to Canada as hopes of finding survivors faded.

It was tough to leave when the country is in such need, but the dogs were getting tired in the 32 C heat, Riswold said. As they left, teams specializing in body recovery were arriving.

The contrast is immense as Riswold, sitting on the couch with Piper flopped sleepily over her knee, looks out of her window at the surrounding North Saanich farmland.

"We are so insulated here. People watch it on TV, but you can turn it off," she said.

The contrast can be overwhelming, but Riswold, trained in critical-incident stress management, has ways of coping.

"You do the best with the skills you have got and then you give it away. My way is to give it over to God," she said.

Riswold, who has trained Piper in rescue techniques since she was a puppy, is a member of the Peninsula Emergency Measures Organization and is trained as an emergency-medical technician.

When the earthquake struck, the Canadian Search and Disaster Dogs Association offered its services to the United Nations. The group was told to get there quickly, Riswold said.

Within 15 minutes of landing in Port-au-Prince and reporting to UN headquarters, the group, together with Jordanian UN troops and a dog team from Luxembourg, were sent to a school that had pancaked.

The stench of death was everywhere and no one was found alive, Riswold said.

"It was very hard. You knew it was filled with kids and you could see their school books and papers in the rubble."

It was the same story at a supermarket and it seemed even the dogs were getting depressed, Riswold said.

By the second day, the smell of death was very strong. At one point Piper and another dog, both trained to give a scratch alert for death, just flattened themselves.

"They seemed to sense the wrongness of it," she said.

The payoff came when they were working with a British dog team and rescued a 50-year-old man from the rubble. In their sector of the city, the dog teams then rescued another five people.

Some organizations are criticizing the association, which has headquarters in Edmonton, for deploying so rapidly, adding that the training and certification are not adequate.

Although the teams are associated with the International Rescue Organization, they are not certified, said Mary-Ann Warren of the Search and Rescue Dog Association of Alberta, which works within the province when help is requested by police or municipalities.

"I am concerned CASDDA is deploying itself and they are putting themselves at risk," Warren said. "I think these people are do-ing it for the wrong reasons. I really want to speak up before someone gets hurt."

However, Canadian Search and Disaster Dogs Association executive director Richard Lee said the training is extensive and, when disaster strikes, the aim is to cut through bureaucracy and deploy teams rapidly, provided lives can be saved.

Riswold finds the controversy confusing.

"It is so not about the dog or the team. It's about the victims," she said.

jlavoie@tc.canwest.com