I would like to thank each of you for your interest and enthusiasm in our organization. Many of the officers have received calls about dog handling, inquires from prospective members you have cultivated, and plenty of questions about upcoming seminars. We welcome all your calls. I will attempt to answer these questions and more.

Canine Search and Recovery now has more than 130 members. At the time of our seminar we had 116, a net increase of 14 members. This is excellent, particularly since we are between seminars. This is all due to word-of-mouth. Membership is the lifeblood of any organization! It brings in revenues, geographic representation, and most important the wealth of knowledge. Let's keep the moment going and keep the lines of communication open.

Our organization's next major seminar won't be until October 5^th - 9^th in Asheville, North Carolina. Our next newsletter, due after the first of the year, will provide more details regarding this outing. Currently our host organization, The North Carolina Search and Rescue Dog Association, Inc., is putting the finishing touches on the planning and reservation phases. In the interim, Garland Gilman is planning an abbreviated session for the spring 1997. Garland is intending to put together a 3 or 4 day excursion in Appomatox, Virginia. Hopefully this will fill the gap and desire of many until our major seminar in fall 1998. I would encourage each of you to write into our Editor and share details, dates, and locations of seminars being held in your area. Attending many different seminars is good for both you and your dog. This will provide a fresh and new perspective, as well as keeping your skills sharpened.

Finally, I'd like to make two final points. TRAIN WEEKLY! Nothing can provide greater confidence and a good working dog team than consistent training and practice. And second, I would like to encourage every member to send copied SEARCH REPORTS to our Editor. We understand that formats vary, and that's fine. Just elaborate and provide the necessary details to paint the scene.

Scent Discriminating Dogs and the Scent Article

There are many search and rescue dogs throughout the world that have been trained using various methods. It is always interesting to meet these people and to learn about their particular training methods and the ways they work their dogs during a search mission. In having met all kinds of handlers and trainers from all over the world, I have always been intrigued as to why more people do not train their dog to scent discriminate. I suppose an answer to that question may best come from Denver Holder, the President of the North Carolina Search & Rescue Dog Association. During a seminar held in 1995 in Johnston County, NC, Denver referred to scent discrimination as "The world's best kept secret in Search & Rescue".

So how do you begin to train a dog to scent discriminate? Well you introduce a scent article to the dog during training sessions and begin to work in exercises where the dog is asked to locate an individualized scent. Before we do this, it would be best to gain an understanding what a scent article is and the proper way to secure and utilize that article.

So what is a scent article?

A scent article can best be described as anything that has been in contact with the missing subject and has not been handled, worn, or contaminated in any way by someone else. By using a scent article from a missing subject, the dog should be able to determine a direction of travel if the lost subject has been through the search area you are working in.

Why use one?

A better question here is: Why not?

Every time we go on a search we are asking our dogs to perform some unbelievable tasks, often in the worst weather conditions, and over extended periods of time. Try to imagine yourself in your dog's position having to run a track, work a trail, or run through the woods airscenting for a missing subject. Wouldn't you agree that when a scent article is introduced, and we ask our dog to look for a specific individual, we are making search an easier process on the dog? For all of us who have worked search and rescue missions we have seen the amount of people (volunteer firefighters, law enforcement official, etc.) who go tromping through the woods. If a dog does not scent discriminate, and have the opportunity to know who it is looking for, every single person it encounters during that search will be a "find". Why not give the dog the opportunity to know specifically who it is looking for; this way it can focus all its attention on finding the lost subject.

1How should scent articles be handled?

With the utmost care! You need to take the appropriate care to make sure that scent articles DO NOT get contaminated.

When picking up a scent article, do not use your bare hands. Instead use a coathanger, stick, or wear plastic, sterile surgical gloves when handling the article.

Place it in a clear, sealable plastic bag. This will enable you to keep it dry during inclement weather and also allow you to take it with you once it has been used to pre-scent the dog. In the event of a prolonged search, you will now have the ability to re-scent the dog as it becomes necessary. DO NOT use scented plastic bags to store a scent article as it will interfere with the dog's ability to individualize the subject's scent.

What can be used as scent articles?

Any item can be used provided it has been in contact with the missing subject ONLY. Some suggestions include:

Clothing use upper body clothing (shirts, undershirts, nightgowns, pajamas, and coats) if available. DO NOT use clothing from the family hamper as this will be contaminated with other family members scent.

Car seats: place a 4 x 4 sterile gauze pad on the vehicle seat to absorb the scent, or cut out a piece of the vehicle's seat if absolutely necessary. DO NOT use a car seat if individuals other than the missing subject have been inside the vehicle on the seat.

Personal items: Keys, wallets, hats, etc.

Footwear: cut out the insoles or tongue of the shoe if necessary.

Bedding blankets, sheets, pillowcases if the missing subject has only used them.

Footprints: protect them from being walked upon by other searchers and keep people out of the immediate area. If the footprint is confirmed to be that of the missing subject, you can start the dog off of the footprint.

How do you introduce a scent article to the dog?

Once an article has been properly secured in a sealed plastic bag, you will want to open up the bag, hold it in front of the dog, and ask him to "check it". Once the dog has checked the scent article and taken a little sniff, give him the command that is used to track, trail, or air scent.

DO NOT stick the dogs nose completely into the bag because you will flood the dog's scent receptors with the scent and the dog will be unable to find the scent source. The best way to visualize this is to imagine someone taking an onion and rubbing it all over your face. You are than blindfolded, and the onion is tossed out into a field for you to look for using only your nose. Because you have had the onion rubbed all over your face, your scent receptors are overwhelmed with that smell and you are unable to determine where the onion is located.

How do you tell during training if the dog is actually able to individualize scent?

Set up a training exercise using two subjects and one scent article to see if the dog is actually distinguishing between the two individuals. This can be setup in one of two ways:

1. Cross tracks: set up a problem whereby both subjects walk side-by-side, cross over each others paths, cross back again, and have the subject who dropped the scent article veer off at a right hand angle. The dog should follow the path of the individual who dropped the scent article.

1. Split Trails: both individuals walk side by side. At an intersection or particular point have both subjects split off in opposite directions. The dog should follow the individual who left the scent article.

Conclusion:

For those of you who are currently training your dog to scent discriminate, congratulations-you have discovered the best kept secret in search and rescue. Keep up with your training and utilize different types of scent articles (hats, gloves, wallets, etc.) to see how your dog reacts.

For those of you whom have not embraced this concept, that's o.k. During one of your training exercises, try using a scent article, and see how the dog reacts. Try using some of the ideas we presented above like split trails or cross tracks. This will throw another aspect into your training, present a new challenge to the dog, and keep training interesting for you and your team members.

Mike Sullivan is the K9 Training Officer and former President of the North Carolina Search and Rescue Dog Association-Central Unit. He is also the publisher of Working Dog News, a bi-monthly publication on the training of working dogs. He can be reached via e-mail at search4u@mindspring.com or by phone at (919) 493-9575.

A Busy Summer in Wisconsin

I've been in law enforcement for eight years and working canine for five years. It wasn't until this spring that I decided to broaden the scope of my canine duties. I intended to train my lab Cochise for under water cadaver recovery. Jerry Nichols, one of the instructors at the 1997 Canine Search & Recovery Seminar had me take the bloodhounds through the water recovery course. I love me lab and he is great at narcotics detection; but I fired him from the cadaver position after running the course with both of my bloodhounds. They took to this job naturally.

I've worked canine primarily from the criminal aspect. A few days after returning from Virginia there was a drowning on the Wisconsin River. The victim was a twenty-four year old male on vacation here from Ireland. It was his twenty fourth birthday and he drown in front of his brother. This area of the river has a clean bottom and a very strong current. Sooner made the find close to where the victim was last seen. We assumed the victim would have washed down stream, and Sooner proved right.

The summer of 1997 proved to be a record year for drowning deaths in the state of Wisconsin. This summer we ended up working a total of seven incidents. I've found that in each case we were within sixty feet of the body. The depth of the water in these locations ranged from ten to forty feet. The greatest problem we faced with recovery was the poor visibility. I've checked with several agencies and have developed a dragging bar system that should help your department improve recoveries in situations involving low water visibility. To learn more about this system you can contact me in writing at:

Brian Joyner

Investigator & K9

Mt. Horeb Police Department

138 East Main Street

My. Horeb, WI 53572

Canine Search & Recovery has greatly increased my workload with the dogs. Through the circumstances are often unfortunate for us to be called; I love being able to help various agencies bring these tragedies to a timely ending. The bottom line is putting those dogs to work, and having them perform as professionals!

Brian Joyner is and Investigator and K9 officer with the Mt. Horeb Police Department in Wisconsin. He works two bloodhounds: Sooner & Tanner and a Lab named Cochise. Since attending the Canine Search & Recovery conference in early May, he has been instrumental in locating the bodies of seven drowning victims.

Bam (June 1985 - April 1995)

Bear (June 1984 - May 1997) Handler: Sharon Lindsey, Ill-Wis SAR Dogs

Bam and Bear were adopted from a shelter and trained for search work by Sharon when Illinois-Wisconsin Search & Rescue Dogs had just begun in 1986.

Both were big, loveable mixed breed that Ill-Wis can be proud of. They were used on many searches for missing people and cadavers - always working diligently.

With the passing of these two dogs, our friends, the unit has lost all of its' original search dogs within the past year. From the very beginning, all of them have led us down the trail. And now, the second generation of Ill-Wis Dogs are eagerly following in their paw prints.

None of these great dogs will ever be forgotten --- they have taught their handlers well!

Please send in articles for the next newsletter! We are especially interested in articles related to training. Send to: David Hancock, P.O. Box 371; Durham, NC 27702. Please send us your e-mail address to csar@mindspring.com

Canine Search and Recovery

PO Box 118

Rockville, Va. 23146