What's It Like...

I was asked recently what it's like to do volunteer search and rescue with my dog.  An easy enough question, but not so to answer.  Thinking about it now, and forming an answer to myself, I have to wonder why I do it even... 

The map above shows the searches I've responded to in just Virginia.

There's the commitment:

So many people contact my team interested in joining. One of my responsibilities with the team is to answer their inquiries. In doing so, I briefly outline the level of dedication that will be needed. Time, money, sweat, mileage, and more time. A large number never respond back to me. Others more daring, and feel it is still something they would like to do, arrange to come out to a training to see what goes on. Of those, many never come back out. But still some do. Of those that come several times and decide to embark on this journey they will put in an application and join the team and start training with their dogs...for upwards of 2-3 YEARS before they become certified as a dog team with their canine. And from joining to certification, I have been told before in the past that a mere 9% make it to becoming certified. Of those that become certified, even less stick around long enough to train a second dog when the first one retires or passes away. It's rare to find anyone that's been involved in search and rescue for longer than ten years. The turnover rate is fairly high. Anyone that has been doing it longer than ten years becomes a "dinosaur"...a highly trained, highly skilled, highly dedicated dinosaur, but a dinosaur none-the-less.




There's the impact on personal life:

Along the road to becoming certified, comes the obvious issues...buying gear, traveling far, and managing time. The biggest issue would be time. Consider that I train pretty much every Sunday of the month and once during the week if possible. Sometimes there are weekend long and even WEEK long trainings. This makes it hard to spend time with my fiancé, hard to schedule things with family and friends, and hard to feel like I've had a relaxing weekend before heading back to work. Usually what happens is my one true day off each week is reserved for catching up with work around the house. For my first dog, Hero, Lori did an amazing amount of training with me, which really helped minimize the times that I would normally not have been with her. Together, she and I trained Hero. And this is just trainings...Then there are the searches...

Above are two missing persons fliers that I've received at searches.  As you can see, some are professionally done with tons of information, and others are done on the fly with just scanning a photo and handwriting information before copying.

Searches:

One thing I said in answer to the person asking me about SAR was that I've seen the best in humanity and the worst in humanity...often times during the course of the same search. When I was in full swing with responding to searches, I would get called out for a search on average once a month. Sometimes it would be more frequently, sometimes a month would go by with nothing. And when you get called out, here are the times that it happens:

1) When you're at work
2) When you've JUST gotten home from a long hard day at work
3) When it's 1:00am
4) When the weather is blizzarding, or hot and humid
5) When you're in a movie theater
6) When it’s New Years Eve
7) When it's 2 miles from home or when it's 250 miles from home.

In a personal search report, you can see I was celebrating Hero's birthday after just getting home from work. And while on the way, the missing person was found.

When responding to a search, a large portion of the missing people are found before you can get there. You might just be leaving your house after having packed up your gear, suited up (and not to forget your dog!), and hitting the road ~ which is nicer than, getting turned around when you're just a few miles from the scene. It's great that they were found, and even better if they were found alive and well...but there's something inside that is still just a little disappointed that I wasn't able to get my dog out and do a task. More often, I would make it to a search scene and it would be any number of environments. I've arrived at a search where it's set up like a small city, with hundreds of people. Searchers, law enforcement, management, media, family, and general public all doing whatever they can. Other times I've pulled up and been the first responder there and having to be the first one out into the field. When that happens, you get to make your own task, and leave information on where you went and for what you might recommend for the next searchers to arrive. Some searches are based out of fire stations or churches...others are based right out of the missing persons front yard....and others out of a squad car at the beginning of a trailhead.

A web article of a search after very high temperatures that caused one dog to have to get carried back in out of the field and me only working Hero in short 20-30 minute segments at the risk of him overheating.  Ironically, this search was in an area where we used to train all the time!  So we were pretty familiar with the area.  This article also mentions all the agencies and teams that responded together.

Some searchers don't really want to read the news stories about the missing person, or get to know too much about them. I'm not one of them. I like to put their "human-ness" to them. That helps with motivating me to get out of bed in the middle of the night to head out on a search, or makes me take that much more care with looking for clues and completing my coverage of my assigned sectors. But the toll is that you see some really bad things that really bad people can do to others. Family members sexually assaulting family members, children killed for making a simple mistake, children raped and buried, a mother killing her own daughter and saying she was abducted, a family friend killing a daughter and stealing her money out of an ATM. And the tragic things, like a small boy visiting the area running away from the house he was staying at because he was afraid of dogs that lived there and being found too late, or a man that drowned because he jumped off the boat to save a child that had flipped off an innertube being towed behind and panicked, or two teenaged youths stealing a canoe for a quick "joyride" around a lake and flipping it and drowning. Even a man that for whatever reason went off on his own to end his life with a handgun. And also a woman that shot herself while sitting under a tree with a picture of her family in her lap. Some tragic things can even be done by Mother Nature. Responding to the Lower 9th Ward in New Orleans after Katrina & Rita showed me peoples lives being washed away...literally. Seeing where their last moments were in an attic waiting for help with nothing but a bag of Cheez-Its and a bible or being washed into a fence with thousands of boards and debris, or even under a house, makes me appreciate what I have and makes me think how I might go out and would I have any control on how when it's my time. Coming home from these searches is always very emotionally draining. But the UPSIDE is seeing the best in humanity, like the older neighbors that aren't fit enough to go hiking about but are able to carve hiking staffs for the searchers, or set out food and drink. Or the children that aren't trained searchers, but remembered seeing the photo of the missing woman and stumbling across her in the woods and getting a cab to drive them into the base camp to say they saw her. And even better are the times when the missing person is found alive, when a dog catches scent in the middle of the night and takes off 200 yards to the missing people and jumps around on them all happy, or the searcher that looks where you wouldn't expect to find someone (like in a culvert under a road) and finding the person who answers back "I'm okay" when asked if they were alright...like it was nothing but just being normal laying under a road!

You may have noticed, but I was able to pull out of my head way too many "sad endings" than "happy endings"...all too often, that's just the case really. But bottom line, people are happy that we either bring closure, or help them START closure, by bringing their loved ones home one way or another.

A picture of Hero and I about to head out on a search task.

There's the reward:

All the people on my team are people that I would normally not ever have met from the circles I run with. Pretty much everyone comes from a different background, or enjoys different things. The only thing we have in common is our drive to do the volunteer work with our dogs and enjoying the outdoors and using our skills to help people. But of all the people on my team, and the others that I've met on other teams, every single one of them is doing it for the right reasons, and I would be comforted to know that they would be looking for me if ever I was lost. They are the best group of people I could ever hope to meet.

Then there's the thanks we receive from the community.  Getting a personal thanks from a family member, even after the results of the search may not have been what all had hoped for, is a very touching thing.  One mother of a drowned child said afterwards "This was my sons last gift to give...that it brought all the people of the community together".

And working with my dog is amazing. I enjoy having the relationship with him where he is my pet where I can laugh at him and scratch my head wondering why he does half the stuff he does, but also where he is my partner and I'm seeing him grow into his own where he's learning his skills, and has a working mentality when the orange vest goes on and the words "Find ‘Em" is said to him. If he's going to be anything like my last dog, then I'll be extremely lucky. He's what's keeping me doing this. He's what turned me into a dinosaur last year. Doing this for a hair under eleven years is all because he enjoys what he's doing, and because he is, I am too.

3 Days of SAR

Probably the only thing missing from these last three days was an actual search call out.  Everything from a team training, to running a test for another handler and dog, to a huge demonstration happened and I'm just finally getting a moment to sit down and relax.  It's what I do with my days off when away from work...

Sunday was a team training day at a fabulous park, Caledon Natural Area, where eagles soar over the river banks and pristine woodlands.  I always like going to this location.  Not long ago it was on the chopping block for being closed down to the public due to budget issues within the park system (and really state).  But better heads prevailed, and the park remains open.  I always enjoy looking for eagles in flight when I'm there.  This training was a special one, because we took a break in the middle of the day to honor several of our canines that have died this year for various reasons.  2010 has been a bad year for search and rescue dogs in our group, and for SAR dogs in general it seems!  On our mobile command post trailer, we list the names of our dogs that have gone but are not forgotten.  This weekend we honored them by adding their names, saying a little something about them, and reading a short poem.  In attendance were prior team mates, newbies to the team, old dinosaurs like myself that have been on the team for over ten years, and one of the park rangers.  It was a moving ceremony, and it was sad to see that the space on the side of the trailer is filling up faster than we might have hoped.

Here I'm adding the names of our dogs that are gone but not forgotten

Another neat thing about Caledon is that when you work certain search problems, you stand the chance of running by the rivers edge.  It's always very scenic, and great to take a quick moment to let your dog cool off in the water before continuing on.  Other times I've intentionally hid someone right at the waters edge so it would serve as a distraction to a dog that LOVES the water and would possibly abandon searching for the moment to get a chance to take a dip!  My last dog, Hero, was a dog that loved the water.  One time long ago, we were searching along the high ridge-line above the waters edge...really a cliff in some areas, and what follows is his adventure.  Hero did well not getting distracted by the call of the refreshing water and did his searching as he was expected to.  When he was done, I was going to allow him to go into the water and told him "Let's go swimming!"...well, he took the most direct route to the waters edge and went right over the cliff bouncing down the side about 50 feet until he reached the bottom where he promptly went into the water and laid down in it all happy as could be.  This location was at the end of a road called "Lookout Road"...that in itself should cause you to wonder...you can go to this point at the end of the road and look out over the water taking in a fantastic view.  Hero could not come back up that same point, so had to run down the shoreline until he came to a drainage where he could make it back up.

Flash forward to this last Sunday.  Sirius just completed a fantastic trail problem, and I saw that we were at Lookout Road.  Remembering the water was right there, I said, "Let's go swimming!"...Sirius went right to the edge of the cliff and jumped down it as well!  I was right at the edge with him, thinking that we would look together for a good place for him to go down.  I looked over the side and thought no way would that be good...but before I could direct him away, down he went...sliding at first, causing a landslide of loose soil, then a controlled "jump/fall" over a tree branch, and then two bounds descending 50 feet to the bottom where he, just like Hero, went right into the water happy as a clam!  Sirius could not get back up the side, but he tried several times.  I tried directing him to go along the shoreline to the drainage that I remembered was somewhere nearby, but he didn't listen to that and instead kept trying to climb back up. Every time he tried climbing back up, he slid back down...so worried that he would hurt himself I put myself over the side and slid all the way down on my butt digging in with both feet and both hands to slow my decent as best as I could.  When I got to the bottom, I was able to meet up with one of my walkers that had come along and had found a manageable way to get down AND back up a little ways down the shore.  Together, all of us got back up to the top, and I got quite the laughs when people saw my muddy backside!  Another moment worth noting is that I've taken Hero's bell that he wore when searching and have given it to Sirius to wear.  After Hero died, and I got Sirius, I started over with things that were not Hero's...new leashes, new search dog vests, new collars, and new toys.  I felt it would be nice for Sirius to carry back into the field something that was Hero's, and during this training day was the first day that he did so.  It was nice to hear the tinkling of the bell because I had heard it so often with Hero, that it's a special sound to me and makes me think he is there whispering into Sirius' ear "focus on the scent...ignore that deer...don't get too far ahead of David".

Then comes Monday.  It's test day for one of my team mates, and I'm administering it.  I'm usually known with my elaborate story lines that I use for the missing person.  Another team mate, who shall go nameless, volunteered to hide for this Open Field test (where the dog and handler have to search about 30-40 acres in approximately one hour) at Great Meadow in their pristine polo fields.  The story for him was that he was a horse rider who was known for his flamboyance and clumsiness.  He was last seen wearing magenta, mauve, salmon, chartreuse and azul colored silks doing some jumping.  His horse came back to the stable without him, so a search was in order.  My team mate, Robin, and her dog Leah, worked the problem great paying no mind to the heat and humidity.  They passed, and are now one test down with five more to go!  Congratulations to Robin and Leah!

We finished up the morning with a nice open field search for Sirius, and his recall/refind (where after he finds the person, he leaves them and comes back to get me telling me he's found them by jumping on me, and we run back together) must have been 150 yards!  Seeing it in the open field setting was great because normally you can't really see where your dog has gone when they've gotten into scent and have to wait until they come back to indicate that they've made the find.  In the field, I could watch him go all the way to the person and come back to me like a bullet!

Then comes Tuesday...the last of three full days of SAR.  And we saved the biggest for the last!  If ever you want to test your dogs temperament and confidence (and patience), sign up to go to the Stafford County Sheriffs office annual DARE Day.  The 9th Annual DARE Day was held at Pratt Park in Fredericksburg.  Between the hours of 9:30 am and 12:30 pm, TWO THOUSAND fifth graders were bused in to see cool things like helicopters, emergency vehicles, police dog demonstrations, kite flying and parachuting.  Also to participate in fun activities like games and even fencing!  Well, my search team has attended numerous DARE Days, and you have to have the right dog to pull this event off!  Sirius and I, along with Autumn and Cooper and Cathy H. attended this year, and it was a blast.  There were SO many kids wanting to meet our dogs.  Sure there were other dogs there, but they were police dogs that could not be pet.  So if you want to pet a dog there were only a very few to choose from!  Sirius must have met more people in these few hours than he has his in his whole life!

We set up a "booth" at my car, where many people came by to say "Hi", meet the dogs and look at some items that we had pulled out of our vehicles to show what we carry when we go searching (flashlights, helmet, compass, powder, maps, etc.) and passed out fliers on how to be safe when hiking.  We also did several demonstrations of the dogs "finding" someone and of their obedience skills.  And periodically took turns doing a walk through the park area to meet people.  What would normally be a five minute walk to one end of the fields and back turned into almost an hour!  Every ten feet you'd meet up with more kids wanting to pet your dog, get their picture taken with them, and even get autographs.  For fun, if the kids had paper to sign, I had Sirius bite the paper and then I'd sign it with an arrow showing his tooth mark!  Other times it was just signing their tee-shirts...I didn't ask Sirius to bite those!  It was hard to even get a moment alone...I was trying to walk Sirius off to the side of the fields so he could go to the bathroom, but kids were shouting, "Can I pet your dog?!"  or "Can I get your autograph?!".  Sirius ended up peeing right in the middle of the field and while he was peeing, a kid came over and was petting him!  Sirius never stopped and just dealt with it!  When we got home, Sirius got a nice cheeseburger from McD's for being so good.  And now as I'm writing this, he's been sleeping soundly at my side.  I'd love to pet him, but I think he's had enough for today!  I think I'll just join him instead.