Search Dogs

Reported by Statewide correspondent, Andrea Gallagher.

In the summer of 1999 a teenager from Grand Island disappeared while swimming in this lake. Volunteer search dogs scoured the area to detect the boy's scent. Their strong sense of smell helped guide to the missing person. Emergency workers frequently call on dogs like these.
So just how does a canine become a search and rescue dog?
Many of them beginning training at workshops like this one, put on by the North American Search Dog Network. Dog handlers from all over the United States and Canada come out to teach owners and dogs the proper techniques. It's a long process but handlers say it's worth it.
[Ellen Ponall] "As a mother and a grandmother, the finding of a child… I was at… they had lost their Downs Syndrome child in my region and he was gone for approximately four hours when I was called into the scene. I was sent with one of my hounds and within fifteen minutes my hound was up to the child and… that… if that was the only case I solved in my career would all be worth it, all the time… the hours."
Ellen is the president of the North American Search Dog Network. She says local police departments have dogs to assist with drug searches and criminal apprehension. But not many have dogs specially trained to find missing people. That's where they come in. This group consists of more than two hundred canine teams across the continent, and they're all volunteers.
[Tom Osterkamp] "You know, it's a really traumatic thing to lose a loved one, but to not… not to know where the loved one is… and maybe he's alive you know, and maybe he's dead. And just to bring some kind of closure to that sort of thing is the kind of thing… It's the reason I've got involved with that kind of work really."
Tom and his team of Labrador Retrievers have been called out on many searches. His dog, Dolly, has been the most successful.
[Osterkamp] "She found the fifteen-year-old boy that was drowned in twenty-five feet of water. And… yeah. Yeah, and we found a little girl once."
During this particular training exercise Dolly is given a scent of another person who is hiding somewhere else in the campground. She gives Tom signals and he follows her lead.
[Osterkamp] "Good girl, Doll. Good girl."
After about six minutes of tracking Dolly locates the victim and completes a successful search exercise.
[John Browne] "Really just a super track. The dog's nose was down the whole time. I mean the dog… a good dog doesn't mess around at all."
After a track is over handlers say it's important to give lots of praise and attention because for the dogs this is just a game.
[Ponall] "After finishes we emphasize happy and rewards. Regardless of how they do on the track, it has to be a happy ending for them because this is a game. If they don't want to do it for fun they're not going to do it for us."
This Bloodhound just completed a search… a few mistakes were made but the mistakes weren't because of the dog.
[Ponall] "The handler made a few mistakes and we'll chat with him about that. But the puppy did well."
In the event of a drowning dogs and their handlers must know how to pick up the scent in water. Many of the dog handlers learn the basics of water searches. Jamie Wirtz is a rescue diver setting up a mock disaster.
[Jamie Wirtz] "Though we usually put the dummy in a cricket cage you can by anywhere. Stick the scent in. And what I'm going to do is take it over by the docks and let it set for just a few minutes. I'm going to mark it with a buoy so I know exactly when the dog's on it. And simulate an offshore drowning."
Roy Engebretson has been working with search dogs for more than twenty years. He trains dogs for the Minneapolis Police Department. Currently he's training this dog for a drug enforcement agency in Minnesota. He says volunteer search groups like this one are extremely important.
[Roy Engebretson] "And the bottom line is, you can't put a price tag on a kid. So if the department doesn't have a dog for a lost kid, you know, you should probably call in search and rescue. It makes sense. It doesn't cost you any money. It's a valuable tool."
"Roy is teaching this group of handlers how to search in a difficult location like a cornfield. He gives them a mock situation and they will have to figure out the best way to get through it.
[Engebretson] "It's a homicide suspect. He's supposedly armed but you don't know that. You need to do an area search or track, whatever you want to do."
The handlers take the dog through a lot of rough terrain, including tall cornstalks. Instructors say its good to take the dogs through a wide variety of elements so they will be ready for anything. After the search, Roy gives the handlers tips on how they can do it better next time.
[Engebretson] "Any time you do something different its going to be unique. What makes a dog a good working dog is the dog can adjust to that real quick."
Every one of these volunteers dedicates endless amounts of their time, resources and money. Initially they get into this kind of work because of their love for dogs. But once they complete a successful search, they discover there's no better reward than finding a missing person.
[John Browne] "Probably the best one we ever had was a lady we found in a swamp that everybody had been looking for. And the… after like half a night they finally called the hound dogs. I hooked the hound up, took him out on the trail and found the lady laying in a creek. And her body temperature was like 87 degrees. If she'd have been there five more minutes she'd been dead. You have one like that and you never forget it."
All it takes is one case like this to realize these handlers and their dogs can be the link between life and death.