Dogs and people have been working side by side for thousands of years. Modern training has led to dogs becoming a vital part of many people's lives, not just as companions, but as contributing members of our society. Dogs have a sense of smell 50x more sensitive than ours making them an essential tool for search and rescue, drug and bomb detection, and tracking and apprehending of fugitives. In addition to their scent capabilities, canines can detect oncoming seizures in epileptic persons, give assistance to those who are wheelchair bound, and to be a friend to those in need. Here are some of our local dogs with jobs!
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| Abigail and Barbara like to match outfits |
"Abigail", a 5 year old Maltese is one impressive little doggy. She can jump through hoops, bow, do push-ups, play piano and can even read! Her owner, Barbara Davis, holds up a written command and without any other cues, Abigail will perform the command that is on the card! With her friendly, outgoing personality and her bag of tricks, she visits local hospitals including a local children's oncology specialist to bring a smile to patients' faces. Abigail is a Certified Therapy Dog. She underwent rigorous training in obedience classes and has been certified through Therapy Dog International. TDI is a volunteer organization dedicated to regulating, testing and registration of therapy dogs and their volunteer handlers for the purpose of visiting nursing homes, hospitals, other institutions, and wherever else therapy dogs are needed. She is currently at the TDIA Outstanding Volunteer level meaning that she has completed over 150 visits. Her current number is 232! Barbara says what makes Abigail a good therapy dog is that she is intelligent, loves people, and has a good trainer. She says that Abigail's job is to make people happy and to help get their minds off their troubles. She also says that Therapy Dogs can even be wonderful therapy for their handlers. If interested in having your dog become a Therapy Dog, you can contact Therapy Dog International, 88 Bartley Rd. Flanders, NJ 07836 (973)252-9800.
"Recon and Sam": In the fall of 2005 Laurie Vickery became interested in canine search and rescue so she joined K-9 Search and Rescue of Kansas as a founding member with Recon, her German Shepherd. K9SARK is an all-volunteer group of people dedicated to training themselves and their dogs to National Association for Search and Rescue (N.A.S.A.R) standards. They work with law enforcement and emergency management agencies and their services are available free of charge to any community who needs help in finding lost or missing people.
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| Recon on the job |
Recon was rescued by the Vickerys from a neglectful family when she was a puppy. Being a high energy dog that is eager to please, she did very well in training as long as she got time to play. She is very intelligent and, as Laurie states, you can tell her wheels are always turning. She is certified by Therapy Dog International , is Certified in Wilderness Search, and is trained in Disaster Search. Also she has passed her national certification through NASAR, earning their Canine SAR tech II and III! Together they have worked several cases searching for lost and missing persons. In 2007 Laurie and Recon were activated and arrived 2 hours after the May 5th EF-5 Greensburg tornado.
SAR came be very rewarding for the dog and their handler but it can also be very dangerous. In spring 2010, Recon contracted a potentially deadly tick-borne disease that affects the blood. After days of intensive care, she pulled through and, with vigilant monitoring, is doing well today. Due to health, she no longer participates in search activities but is happy spending time with and playing with her brothers.
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| Sam |
Recon isn't the only hero in the family. Sam is a German Shepherd that, at 8 months old was rescued from the Shelter. He was deemed too shy to be put up for adoption. He was then, on his last day, saved by Missouri German Shepherd Rescue. The Vickerys received a call to foster Sam for 2 weeks and after hearing his story they decided to take him home to meet the rest of the pack. He fit in very well with their other three shepherds so when Laurie found out that someone wanted to adopt him, she couldn't let him go. Since Sam is a high energy dog and would do anything to play ball they decided to test him for SAR. It proved to be a great thing helping him to overcome his shyness. Sam knows that as long as he finds the subject he gets to play ball. Laurie is happy to report that he has come a long way with the support of the team and his other canine friends. He is now a Certified Area Search Dog. Laurie says that it just goes to prove what a lot of love and patience will do to help overcome their fears.
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| Thor in his uniform |
Officer Farris describes his relationship with Thor as a working partnership based on trust where they are each considered equals. He gushes about how smart Thor is and how very good he is at sniffing out drugs. He told a story about how one time, during a routine exercise, drugs were hidden behind a fire extinguisher and Thor literally broke the glass to get to them! Officer Farris points out that although police dogs take a lot of time and money to train, they are very well worth it. Just the presence of a K-9 unit in a community can help deter crime. Additionally they can help prevent physical confrontations with suspects, and are a great educational tool.
For more information, you can call Andover Police Department. (316) 733-5177
Written by Amanda Ward of Kutter Pet Care Center
Scott and Shadrach joined the Sedgwick County Emergency Management K9 Search Team. The SCEM K9 team is an organization of Wichita area volunteers and their canine partners who, when called into service by Sedgwick County Emergency Services, deploy certified canine teams to assist in locating lost and missing persons at no cost to the community or families.
There are three types of canine teams with specialized capabilities within the organization.
1. The trailing team, using a scent article and the residual scent remaining on the ground, follows the path of a missing person from the last known location.
2. The area search/wilderness team, using scent dispersed in the air, covers large areas quickly using a grid technique. They can either find a specific person using a scent article or can be instructed to find anyone in an area.
3. The human remains detection team, using scent dispersed in the air, will alert on any decomposing human scent in an area containing bone, teeth, tissue, blood and even ashes, and they can discriminate between human and animal remains. This is Shadrach’s specialty and where he received his certification.
Training is intensive for both dog and handler, and can take 1 to 2 years to achieve certification for deployment. Canines and their handlers train every weekend as a group and train on their own time. The handlers training includes crime scene preservation, navigation, CPR, human and pet first aid, weather safety, hazardous materials, radio communications, and a series of FEMA administered incident command system classes.
The most important traits in a search dog are their drive and temperament. Dogs should be willing to please their owners, have a high prey drive, and must be friendly to other dogs and people.
In addition to Shadrach’s accomplishments as a certified search dog, he is also an AKC Canine Good Citizen and a certified Therapy Dog.
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| Shadrach |
Kutter Pet Care Center
