If you missed the June 2000 KDTC general meeting, than you lost out on an entertaining opportunity to find out about how Search and Rescue (SAR) works in West Michigan. Even members experienced with advanced tracking heard new ideas and had the opportunity to learn a lot.

Our intrepid program coordinators, Jan West and Carole Offerman, arranged for Pat Doran and Jo-Beth Bridleman and Shelties to give the presentation.

Before you ask, Jo-Beth explained with a chuckle, I'll answer everyone's first question: yes, Shelties can do SAR. In fact, Jo-Beth went on to explain, "Any dog that wants to can do Search work". This includes mixed breeds.

Mostly, she explained, what is needed is a person who wants to and has the time. Dogs with longer noses will probably have an easier time but "most people with pugs are not drawn to tracking." Most people interested in SAR tend to be outdoors types and seem to be drawn to larger dogs like Goldens and GSDs. Interestingly, Border Collies are the dogs of choice in England. Mixed breeds can also be successful.

A tracking title from AKC can be acquired in 2 months (according to Sandy Ganz’s book); it takes about 2 years to get ready for search and rescue. In that time, not only the dog is educated; the handlers have to learn how to read topographical maps, use a compass properly, use "UTM" grid points and a global positioning sattilite device. They also study the profiles of the behavior of typical lost people including: children, old people, druggies and lost hunters.

While visions of heroic rescues may fuel the handlers, most of the time nothing much happens. Of maybe 10 "call-outs" in a year, 4 are canceled before the car is packed, in 2 the people were never lost (for example, a guy just walked to the store and forgot to tell his wife), 2 are found while the team was driving to the site, in 1 case the team arrives within 20 minutes of the call-out; the rest of team is getting ready (weather, topo maps, looking for scent articles,) they wait around and wait around and other search means are used; and then there is the one which counts.

The real fun in SAR is working with the dogs; training, preparing, practicing. Although the "sheltie team" does have 3 finds to their credit: two were water finds (dead bodies in lakes) and one was a lost old man that Pat found using simple tracking.

The recognized types of search and rescue work are as follows. They teach it in this order. That's very important, since typical tracking is the most difficult (least "fun") and takes the longest to teach.

• tracking dog (crushed vegetation, footsteps, microscopic bits of skin "skin rafts" dog wears non-restrictive harness; tracking line) the majority of the search work in Michigan is of this type.. The way the dog pulls into the line, the body posture, ears, tails, are the primary communication with the handler. This type of tracking is always started with an article to get the proper scent (since the scene will have been trampled by all the earlier efforts).
• air scent dog (see picture at right) responding to the scent source of a human being who is upwind: dog changes direction based on a whistle. Not used much here. Q: Start with something of the persons? A: Quite frequently they have none dog finds and re-finds any people. Dogs alert on the person (shelties bark).

• Water recovery dog (this has been the best success for her -- on a water scene, they have gone in after divers have tried and the mess is calmer, they row around in a boat with the dogs and the dog alerts. They always send at least two teams, sometimes 3. Dogs are called in last, how much the dead body "emits" depends on water temperature and current. How do they train that? Start on the shore with a skin diver snorkle and person holding something the dog wants. Worked at Yankee Springs under water on a windy day. Sin diving stuff working off the dock. Disappear and come back (reward dog with a game/glove). Then full scuba gear and row over the area. Then have to train in motor boats, pontoon boats, different divers.
• Avalanche training: bury articles in the snow; lots of fun; fetch it; then you carefully put people under the snow (Jo-Beth spent a year in the west learning this) "I dig my own holes". The exciting part is teaching the dog; they should bark at the human, wag or dig at other artifacts: skis, backpacks, gloves. Dogs are the fastest way to recover a person under snow; there is only 30 minutes before the person is probably dead.
• Drug dogs (no, the dogs aren't adicted to the drug so they have to find it!) ,
• Cadaver dogs (for example, through tornado damage) requires lots of physical agility by both dog and handler and is somewhat dangerous to the dogs due to unstable surfaces,
• Trailing dogs (bloodhounds); can even follow people in cars!

At the end of the presentation, Jo-Beth ran her 10 year old SAR veteran, Traveler, on the following track:

Find out more about SAR! A good book is: Search and Rescue dogs training method by The American Rescue Dog Association. Sources on the web (all links good in June 2000):