Has anyone ever..... - Page 1

In hearing all the stories about people turning up missing all over the place; like the most recent one being the pregnant lady in Canton Oh, I wondered how many of you folks if any have assisted in a volunteer search with your dogs and were they a success at finding the missing person or led to their whereabouts?  I find it so amazing that often times the dogs are better investigators than humans.  If you've ever had a SAR story to share I'm sure we'd like to hear them.

A friend of mine dog recover a missing boy that wondered off from the boyscot camp. He wanted to go home and set out to leave. Scary how little ones think.

I tried with my girl once. I had actually washed her out due to nerve issues and dog aggressiveness, but she could follow a trail wonderful.  I got a call and it was a lost child and dark was coming on, so what do you say... you want to help. When I got there the scene and whole area pretty much was contaminated by LE and volunteers that had been searching for the boy, and the worse was there was no scent article with just the boys scent. The parents had just got to the camp area so all clothes were clean etc. no hair brush... they brought me something but I believe it was something the family all would have touched. So we tried anyway and I will give Yette credit, she tried, but no luck. The boy was found though, he made it to the road further up from their camp and people driving picked him up. Thats the good part!

At least there was a happy ending.  The story I've been following in Ohio with the missing pregnant young woman just really is so sad.  When you hear they got the cadaver dogs out searching you tend to get the idea of where the police are going with their investigation.  I wondered if you train a SAR dog the same as when they're tracking for schutzhund?  It's unbelievable how these dogs can search miles of woods ect. and lead to a body.  That would be the most rewarding part of a GSD's job in my eyes.  I get frustrated and bored with tracking and I can tell my dog isn't really into it as much either-it's too bad though; never know when you might be able to help someone out.

Sadly, when women disappear, Its almost always the significant other. The only good news is that they are getting very good at catching and prosecuting the perps. Hopefully it will get to the point that so few gt away with it that more prsopective woman-murderers will elect not to try their hand at  "the perfect(ly awful) crime." In my community, domestic abuse is shockingly well tolerated by residents, law enforcement, and the courts alike. Resources for investigation are meager unless the state or the feds get involved, and crimes of passion go unsolved, barely noticed, althoug it is getting better.

Welcome to Toontown.

SS

Agar here is a site that is WOW http://www.k9forensic.org/ I was reading all the finds that these dogs have done and it just blows my mind when I  thought about how old some of the bodies have been. Granted they are not all shepherds but my hat goes off to them any ways.

Page down the page to see the story.castlebrookshepherds.net/Viho.html

djc what a neat story!! Amazing when dogs can work with no training.

Agar - No SAR tarcking is very different. The dogs track (to me) in a more natural way. They can footstep track but they air scent as well. Also people shed little skin cells called rafts (I think) contantly (gross huh) these can be higher up in tall grass or brush so it is not necessary for the dog to keep his nose to the ground. Also wind currents can bring air scent from different directions, so a dog might follow this and cut off half  or more of the way a lost person has actually walked. I wish I had pursued it more, it was fun. You might not want to encourage it if your doing Schutzhund with your dog but if their done titling or your not competing its a fun game for your dog. Its amazing how fast they can run with their head somewhat down following a trail!

Cool story, especially as the dog had no training!

I remember one from a couple of years ago, where an elderly couple was trapped in their aviary by heavy snow and a fallen tree. (I believe it was the Buffalo area.) Their GSD, an oversize female, took the lady on her back, and found a way under the tree. Then, she stayed with them in the house and helped to keep them warm until firefighters came to evacuate them.

Wish I'd kept a link. They even had a video of an interview with the couple that showed them with the dog.

A Shiloh Shepherd named Gandalf recently rescued a Boy Scout who wandered away from his camp:http://abcnews.go.com/Video/playerIndex?id=2967876