that’s a pain in the butt at home—independent, high energy, high drive, high intellect, doesn’t get frightened easily, willing to face challenges confidently, and loves to play.” Maybe most important of all, though, is the dog’s ability to find and follow scent without getting distracted. “The bigger the nose, the more scent receptors they have,” says Napier, “so it can be a bit more challenging for a smaller dog.” That said, Napier’s seen plenty of small SAR dogs in her day—dachshunds, yorkiepoos and others can be great cadaver dogs, she notes—but “our team tends to have larger dogs—German shepherds, Belgian Malinois, bloodhounds, Labs, mixed breeds—because we do a lot of wilderness work, so we want a dog that can maneuver easily over downed trees” and maintain stamina on lengthy searches. Though there are some adult dog exceptions (notably Finley, adopted by the Napiers in October and just beginning cadaver dog training at age 2), training for SAR dogs generally starts when they are puppies, and includes obedience training; imprinting them on odors (either of live humans or of decomposing ones, depending on what kinds of searches the dogs will do); distraction training (throwing out food or animal bones to try and throw the dogs off the scent); and getting them used to odd surfaces—places like boats and dense forests, where searches are often conducted. It also includes motivation, in the form of special treats and toys the dogs only get while doing search work, which ensures that they love doing their jobs. In the end, she notes, “Dogs have used their noses for thousands of years to find food, to find mates, to find shelter. All we’re doing is taking the natural ability of that dog [and] teaching them to look for what we want them to look for.” OFF DUTY, IT’S HARD TO TELL THE DIFference between Pearl and Finley and any other well-trained pet dogs; Pearl sleeps on the ground quietly, Finley gently paws at Napier when he’s bored, and both happily accept pets and love from visitors. But when the call comes in for a search, their focus abruptly changes. In fact, says Napier, “Some things we have to spell. W-OR-K is one. When the phone rings, they can
tell—probably because my tone of voice, my demeanor changes—it’s time for a search. They become very excited, but they also just kind of step up.” K9 SAR dogs are only certified as part of a team; in other words, the handler is just as important as the dog. “These are our pets,” says Napier. “They’re our partners. They watch our body language as closely as we watch their body language. There’s a connection there.” So what exactly makes a good SAR dog handler? First off, says Napier, “We don’t get paid to do this; we’re volunteers. We actually pay money to do this. A lot of money.” She adds, “This is like being a volunteer firefighter, almost—you could get a call in the middle of the night from a handler two hours away who needs help. You can get there just as they find the person. And you get to turn around and go back home.” Handlers also have to be certified in a bevy of things, including human and canine first aid; CPR and AED; search management planning and operations; hazmat awareness; crime-scene preservation; and incident management. And handlers have to be in decent physical shape, capable of running either right alongside or just behind a fast-moving dog. “You really have to be in it for the right reason,” says Napier. “If you love to be out in the summer when it’s hot and sticky and sweaty and in the winter when it’s cold and wet, then it’s perfect for you.” In 2005, post-Hurricane Katrina, Napier, Emma, and a team of three other dog/ handler pairs camped for six days at a Mississippi fairground after being called down by law enforcement officials. Each day, Napier and the other handlers took their dogs to a structure that had been decimated by the storm, figured out which direction the storm had been blowing when it left, and then had the dogs sniff as far out from the debris field as they could, looking for signs of life or human remains. Together, Napier and Emma braved knee-deep mud, snakes, alligators, debriscovered swimming pools and endless piles of distracting (for a dog, anyway) household wreckage, including fridges and freezers full of rotting food. Every night, Emma would wrap up work filthy and exhausted, and Napier would bathe her at the campground so
she was ready to start again the next day. They never found anyone, but Napier and Emma did manage to help local safety officials clear dozens of wreckage sites. “I get a lot of e-mails from people saying, This would be such a cool thing to do with my dog,” says Napier. When she sends them an e-mail detailing what it’s really like, “99.98 percent of the time I never hear from the person again.” IT’S EASY TO THINK OF SAR MISSIONS ALways having happy endings, but the truth is there is a sad component to this work. “Sometimes it’s not the outcome you had hoped for,” Napier says. “The whole time you’re doing these searches, especially if it’s a child, you’re praying: Please let it be curled up somewhere on somebody’s back porch asleep.” Regardless of the outcome, families are generally very appreciative. “A lot of searches they’ll come up and want to meet the dogs and thank the handlers,” says Napier. “It’s really touching. I think from having been there—you know what their anguish is.” Still, there are plenty of success stories. Once, one of her teammates found an elderly man with a broken hip whose first words were, “I could use a little help here.” Another time, a fellow teammate was deployed to help find a 7-year-old boy. “They had searched all day and it was almost beginning to be dark and they called in the dogs,” says Napier. “This massive bloodhound named Ruby, within 15 minutes, tracked right to him. The first thing he said was, ‘I want my mommy!’ ” In fact, the surprisingly good news about SAR is that “95 percent of the live people who have gotten lost—child wandered away, grandpa went to the store and didn’t come home, somebody lost in a park—are found before we even arrive on scene,” says Napier. “That’s the best search ever.” Napier also wants people to know how much K9 SAR has grown in the 20-plus years she’s been doing it. “At one point in time, that resource just didn’t exist,” she says. “Now there are multiple good K9 search-and-rescue teams, many in Ohio. They work together, they train together. It’s been humbling to be even just a teeny tiny part of that.”
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