DOGS

scent trail if needed and rewarding the dog when it nds the person or item it is directed to follow.

Training can be messy as canines follow the scent wherever it takes them over all sorts of terrain in all kinds of weather.

food or toys. Once you gure that out, then trainers must convince the dog to do what they want the pup to do for the reward. It begins with what is called a puppy run-away, where you get the pup to run after a person, and when the pup nds the person, the pup gets a reward.

at transitions to following a scent to nd a person.

“It’s just a matter of making it harder and harder to the point where a dog is searching 120 acres for one person or that trailing dog is following a 24-hour-old scent through a subdivision,” Bryarly said.

No matter what or who the dog is nding, it must go to it, stay there, lay down and point its nose, so the handler knows the dog is saying that the item or person is there.

Dogs cannot certify to be search-and-rescue dogs until they are at least 18 months old, but it usually takes two years or more for the rst certi cation, Bryarly said.

“Search-and-rescue dogs that are out in the public have to be just perfect,” Bryarly said. “ ey have to stay focused and not get distracted by other dogs, animals or people.”

Getting involved irty years ago, Julseth-Crosby made a pledge that she would own a bloodhound and train it to be a search-and-rescue dog. at’s because Ali Berelez, 6, who had been kidnapped and murdered in 1993, was found four days after her abduction by bloodhound Yogi. a multiple-day-a-week job.

Julseth, at that time a single parent with a 6-yearold, felt kinship with Ali’s family. However, as a full-time teacher, Julseth-Crosby decided to wait to train when she retired in 2021. True to her word, she began training her bloodhounds Bruno and Miley.

Niamh Coleman of Nederland was looking for something to do with her dogs, thinking it was a casual pastime. Now search-and-rescue dog training is closer to an obsession.

Jayne Zmijewski, who taught outdoor skills to rangers most of her life, said search-and-rescue dogs were a natural progression. She’s had four search-and-rescue dogs in the last 30 years, most recently her chocolate Labrador Kodi.

Teresa Verplanck of Bailey is training Lilo, a border collie mix, for wilderness searches. She called the SARDUS group she trains with wonderful, and trainers and dogs have become a big family.

Jake Udel, who lives near Rustic, Colorado, is a volunteer firefighter and medic, and he trains his dog, Java the Mutt, a Czech shepherd, “for the love of dogs, helping people and the activity.”

Julseth-Crosby said the number of hours can be whatever trainers can put in, but at a minimum eight hours a week, and some weeks, she trains or prepares for training as much as 40 hours a week.

The right breed

While just about any breed of dog can become a search-and-rescue dog, bloodhounds, shepherds and retrievers are the typical dogs people think of, but other breeds — if they have the nose for the work — can be certi ed.

“It works better to start with a breed that is bred to do this,” Bryarly said. “In fact, there are some breeders who breed speci cally search-and-rescue dogs. But sometimes you nd a dog that is good at this, and it’s a breed you never would have guessed could do this work.” e most important thing, Bryarly said, is the bond that the dog and handler have with each other.

“People have told me over the years that they are amazed at something their dog does,” she said. “People think they are the smart ones, but the dog is the smart one. We are just trying to keep up with them.”

Starting early

Training starts early — when pups are a few weeks old.

“Start with a dog who has a high drive,” Bryarly said. “A high-drive dog is always busy and always wanting something to do. If that energy is not channeled right away, the pup will tear your house apart.”

Most canines prefer one of two types of rewards:

Types Of Sardus Certifications

Melanie Weaver of Lafayette knew her dog, Lego,

Udel figures he’s been on 75 to 100 missions since he certified his first dog in 2005.

SARDUS a German shepherd, needed a job to have a ful lling life, and Weaver was looking for something practical. Little did she know that training Lego would be

SARDUS, one of several search-and-rescue dog organizations in the country, helps smaller organizations test and certify dogs. To get the trailing or air-scent certification, which is usually the first certification a dog earns, the canine must follow a 24-hour-old trail to find a person. SARDUS only works with law enforcement, so a person cannot request a search-andrescue dog.

Bryarly said about 30 dogs in Colorado are certified by SARDUS with most of them trailing dogs — the most of any organization in the country.

Membership in SARDUS is $25, and some people join who don’t own dogs, but they want to help in other ways such as creating tracking trails or hiding from dogs, Bryarly said.

Trainers must be physically fit since they follow their dogs through all sorts of terrain, plus they take classes such as the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s incident command courses, so they understand the structure of incidents and managing evidence.

For the SARDUS trainers, the work is definitely a passion.

• Trailing: Dogs who can find scents by putting their noses to the ground.

• Air scenting: Dogs who find scents by putting their noses into the air.

• Avalanche: Some dogs are good at smelling human scents through snow.

• Water: Some dogs are good at smelling human scents through water.

“If you think of it as work, you won’t do it for 20 years,” Udel explained. “You have to adopt the (search-and-rescue) lifestyle. It’s a life-anddeath commitment for some people — certainly the people we are looking for.” in cities.

• Disaster search: Dogs can smell through debris to find people.

• Human remains: Dogs can be certified to find human remains.

• Wilderness: A type of trailing in remote areas.

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