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.