Joe is trained in wilderness air scent, meaning he is trained to detect any human scent, follow it to its source, come back and jump on me to alert me to the fact that he's found someone, then lead me back to the subject. It is neither biased nor inaccurate to describe Joe as an outstanding search dog, as demonstrated by the 18 finds he's had in his short career (he's only been certified since April), but yesterday Joe took his record to a new high.
As I was harnessing Joe in the vest that identifies him as a SAR dog, he was antsy, whining and quivering, chafing at the delay and scope-locked on the trail head leading away from the point at which the subject was last seen. When the sheriff asked me where I planned to start my search I laughed and pointed the opening in the woods on which Joe was so intent and told him the dog seemed to think that way was a good idea. When I let Joe go with the command "find 'em" he shot off like a rocket down the trail. We were accompanied by my husband as team support, and two paramedics, and we quickly headed onto the path behind Joe, as he ranged in front of me some 50 yards, nose in the air, testing for scent. Some 8 minutes into the search he stopped on the trail until I could see him, made eye contact with me, then leapt into the blackberries to the east and began crashing through the underbrush. Much of my training in SAR surrounds learning to read my dog's signals, and I knew at that moment he'd caught the scent of our subject. I held my ground and began to call the subject's name so Joe would know my exact location and waited for the alert I felt sure was going to come. After a few moments I heard Joe barking, a deep urgent call, and instead of waiting for him, I tore through the brush, Roy and the paramedics hard behind me, after my dog. We broke out into a small clearing and found a man clinging desperately to Joe's harness, trying to rise from the ground, and my dog, seated next to him, solid as a rock. Upon seeing me Joe stopped barking and the paramedics rushed to the subject. When the man released his grip on him, Joe ran to me and jumped, this time not to alert, but in obvious joy at the completion of a job well done.
Total search time; 15 minutes.
Several things about this search stand out for me; Joe is always amped at the start of a search, but yesterday I believe he had an idea of where the subject was from the outset; Joe is trained to jump on me to alert, but though never trained to bark if the subject grabs him, has always done so, and continued barking until I had come to him. The subject was a 190 pound man, my dog is an 80 pound lab, yet when the man was leaning his full weight on my dog, trying to stand, the dog never moved, nor did he try to move until the man released his hold on Joe's harness. There is only so much we can train into a search dog, for the rest we must rely on the dog's understanding of the need of each individual search. What separates a good SAR dog from a great SAR dog is their ability to thinnk for themselves in service to others. Joe is a great search dog.
The paramedics credit Joe with saving the subjet's life. I credit him with taking mine to places I'd never imagined. I am more proud of this dog than I can ever say.
Iron Joe
