Canines on Call
Apr 2007
By Lisa Jung
Search and Rescue Teams on Alert in Maine
MESARD members Sean Hall and Ella (l);
Leslie Howe and Frida; Kelly Pontbriand and Dessa;
and Jennifer Fisk, Freya and Fran.
Dessa, a Border Collie owned by Kelly Pontbriand,
is certified in tracking and wilderness air scent.
Blustery wind or blazing sun, snow or rain, ice or mud; even black flies don’t deter them. The members of Maine Search and Rescue Dogs (MESARD) are ready and willing to search for lost and missing people 365 days a year. A volunteer, nonprofit organization formed in 1983 with the help of the Maine Warden Service, MESARD includes 18 certified handler and dog teams.
Four MESARD teams gathered recently for a weekly training session in Bar Harbor. After some canine play and human camaraderie, handlers challenged their dogs to some simulated search and rescue exercises.
It can take up to two years to receive certification as a MESARD team, according to Jennifer Fisk, a founding member of the group. Handlers must be trained in canine first aid, human first aid, CPR, land navigation, radio communications, global positioning systems, wilderness survival, crime scene preservation, ground search techniques and search organization. All dogs are trained in obedience, air scent work and at least one specialty, including tracking; trailing; article or clue detection; water, avalanche or disaster search; and cadaver detection.
Fisk, who owns Acadia Woods Kennels in Bar Harbor, is working with her fourth and fifth German Shepherd search and rescue (SAR) dogs. Freya is 6 years old, certified in wilderness air scent and working toward her cadaver detection certification. Two-year-old Fran is working toward her wilderness air scent certification. Fisk’s male shepherd Hasty is “in charge of homeland security,” she said, later hinting that he might be headed for certification.
MESARD offers unique capabilities to assist state and local agencies in search and rescue. They’re committed to rapid response and 24-hour availability. And since the dogs are specifically trained to work day and night, MESARD is a proven resource for searching in the dark when human searchers alone have more difficulty.
Dogs’ scent capabilities allow for search and rescue over large land areas as well as water. Each MESARD team carries a field radio and special gear required to sustain them for 24 hours. They can be transported by vehicle, boat or plane. In 2006, MESARD was called to 27 searches and fielded dogs to 25; they had three finds of lost or missing people.
The two basic types of search and rescue dogs are air scent dogs and ground search or tracking dogs. Air scent dogs find people by picking up traces of human scent that drift like snow through the air. These dogs face distinct challenges, such as wind conditions, air temperature, time of day and terrain.
“From one corner of the state to the other, we hike through the woods in all kinds of weather at all times of day,” said Leslie Howe, a MESARD member since 2004. “We’re in places most people never see, sometimes at 3 a.m.”
Howe’s 2-year-old German Shepherd Frida was certified in wilderness air scent last October and has been on four searches. Howe became interested in SAR dogs after 20 years of training horses and riders at her stables, Raven Ridge Farm in Columbia. “I felt it was time to use my animal skills to give back to the community,” she said. “Compared to my horses, these shepherds are like brain surgeons.”
Ground search or tracking dogs start near the place where a person was last seen. The tracking dog can smell minute particles of tissue or skin cells sloughed off by a moving person. Tracking challenges a dog’s ability to follow tracks that might be old or contaminated.
Dessa, a Border Collie owned by Kelly Pontbriand, is certified in tracking and wilderness air scent. Pontbriand works for the National Park Service at Acadia National Park. She first joined MESARD in 1987, worked with other search groups out West for 12 years, then returned to Maine. Dessa is her third SAR dog. Her dog Sweep found a lost hunter in Wyoming, a 9-year-old boy in South Dakota and an elderly man in Utah. Her dog Trace discovered a suicide victim in Washington.
“When one of us makes a find, it’s as if all of us made the find,” said Sean Hall, a MESARD member since 1996. “We might have a track dog, an air scent dog, an article dog and a water dog working together on a search. And we’re all involved with training each other and our dogs. We’re one big team.”
Hall owns Ella, a German Shepherd certified in wilderness air scent. “Ella lives to search and find, then to be rewarded with play, food and attention. She’s a high-drive dog.”
Highly-driven dogs are motivated to work. Dogs with food drive are motivated by and rewarded with a treat; dogs with play drive by tugging on a toy; dogs with pack drive by affection and verbal praise; and dogs with prey drive by chasing or catching objects. Herding, hunting, and retriever breeds often make excellent SAR dogs because of these inherent drives.
But it’s also about the attitude, not just the breed. MESARD members and their dogs include an Australian Shepherd, a Bloodhound, a Border Collie, 10 German Shepherds, two German Shorthair Pointers, a Golden Retriever, a Labrador Retriever, a Leonberger, a Malinois, a Portuguese Water Dog and a Rottweiler.
“Search and rescue dogs are exposed to different terrains, structures, noises, surfaces and distractions that affect their ability to learn and work,” said Deborah Palman, a founding MESARD member and training director for both MESARD and the Maine Warden Service K9 Team. “So between seven and 12 weeks is a critical socialization period when puppies should be exposed to people, other dogs, animals and new environments and activities.
Several tests are used to evaluate working drives in puppies, according to Fisk. For example, she places a pup in the middle of a room with a stranger to see if it approaches the person. Or she drags a towel across the floor to see if the pup chases it, picks it up or plays tug of war.
Another test is to put food under a dish to determine how food-driven a pup is. If a pup tries hard to get the food, it shows he is food motivated, which equates to easier trainability because there is a reward in place. She will also test by tossing keys on the floor to see if the pup picks them up, or even better, brings them back to her. As the puppy grows, she starts obedience training, as well as search and find exercises.
“I’ll run and hide behind a tree and see if the pup comes after me,” Fisk said. “Gradually, I progress to a cold search, where someone hides without the dog seeing them. I tell the dog to ‘go find’ and see if she can pick up the scent. The final step is for the dog to find someone, return to the handler with an indication, then lead the handler back to the person.”
“Frida would play with a stick or ball all day if she could,” Howe said. “She’d also eat your arm to get food. So she quickly learned what to do to get her toys and treats: locate the person, return to me and indicate and lead me back to the person.”
So, how does a dog “indicate” a find? Each dog has its own way. On the training session day, three dogs displayed unique indications after they found the person who hid in the woods as the “victim.” Ella charged back to Sean and jumped on him with her paws on his shoulders; Freya ran back to Jennifer, made eye contact and barked; Dessa barked at the person who hid, then sped back to Kelly and barked again. All three led their handlers directly back to the “victim.”
The dogs’ enthusiasm never fades. Cora, Hall’s first SAR German Shepherd, is 13 years old and retired, but she still wants to work. “When she sees me get the search gear out, she’ll go to the back of the truck and wait,” he said. “So when Ella and I train in the yard, I still work with Cora. The dogs just love what they do.”
It’s not only about the dog, however. Handlers need patience, good judgment, knowledge, skills and the willingness to do the “110 percent needed to produce a successful working team,” Palman said. “The relationship between a SAR dog and handler goes beyond mutual cooperation. It’s based on trust in and love for each other.”
