OBITUARIES

tribute connect with you? I would love to hear your story at gotonorton@gmail.com, and when we can remember those who left their ngerprints of love and light on our

Michael Norton is an author, a personal and professional coach, consultant, trainer, encourager and motivator of individuals and businesses, working with organizations and associations across multiple industries.

Cynthia Ann Brown-Gettman was born in Boulder, Colorado, on November 6, 1946. Her parents, Wesley Brown and Lisa DeSantis Brown, settled in ornton, Colorado, with Cindy, brother Val Brown and sister Melinda Brown Younger. After graduating from Merritt Hutton High School in ornton, Colorado. She attended Adam State College in Alamosa, Colorado. She received a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Education. While attending, she met and fell in love with Harold Doogie Gettman from Fort Morgan, Colorado. ey were married on August 2, 1969, and moved west to California to begin their teaching careers. Cindy began teaching special education at J.W. Fair in San Jose, California. She later taught English, History, and Drama. In 1975 they welcomed their son Ryan Dean Gettman, and he was followed by Amanda Christine Gettman Banks in 1981. In 1983 Cindy and Doogie moved to San Martin, California, to a home with property, a large yard, a garden, and livestock. In the ’80s, Cindy and Doogie began to travel throughout the U.S. and abroad. Cindy also was active in the Gilroy Garlic Festival as a chairwoman multiple times and a Board Member. ey also took road trips in their R.V. and traveled with friends and family at various camping sites through many states. Cindy was a devout Catholic throughout her life, with many hours volunteering for their church, their causes, and other charities. Education was very important to Cindy and Doogie, and they were proud that both of their children earned college degrees from Fresno State and their grandchildren are on their paths to earn the same. In 2003, Cindy and Doogie retired after 32 years of teaching, with Cindy at J.W.

Fair for 32 straight years. During their retirement, they continued to travel and were joined by friends and their family, which became more frequent and something both enjoyed. ese trips and camping were with their children, daughter-in-law Anna Alaniz Gettman, son-in-law Ryan Banks, grandson Nikolas Gettman, grandson Nathan Gettman, and granddaughter Brooklyn Banks. In 2018, Doogie preceded Cindy to heaven after a short illness which she loved and cared for him throughout. After his passing, Cindy gained more friends, traveled even more, and was busier than when she was raising her kids and teaching. During this time, she was very active with Book Clubs, Yoga, Swimming, Camping, events with her grief girls, attending plays and concerts, and continued to be involved with St. Catherine’s Church. Cindy continued to update and renovate their family home in San Martin and the property. On May 28, 2023, Cindy was reunited with Doogie, where she once again had her nightly glass of wine, her favorite Italian food, and great conversation. Cindy is survived by her family, many friends, and her beloved dog Lincoln. Celebration of Life Mass will be held on June 14, 2023, at St. Catherine’s Church in Morgan Hill @ 10am. e Banks-Gettman family asks that, in lieu of owers, to donate to the three charities that Cindy believed in. Donations can be made to Martha’s Kitchen, St. Jude Children’s Hospital, and/or St. Catherine’s Church in Morgan Hill. Cindy will be laid to rest at Gavilan Hills Memorial Park in Gilroy, California, where she will always be given a view of her beloved lunch spot, Taco Bell.

BY DEB HURLEY BROBST DBROBST@COLORADOCOMMUNITYMEDIA.COM

Search-and-rescue dogs embody the mail carrier motto: “Neither snow, nor rain nor gloom of night” will keep these trusty canines from their appointed rounds — searching for people or items with single-minded purpose.

For the dogs and their trainers who are part of the Colorado branch of SARDUS — Search and Rescue Dogs of the United States — training is a weekly, if not daily, endeavor to prepare dogs to certify in an area of search and rescue or to keep the dog’s skills sharp after certi cation.

“ e training continues for life,” said Cathy Bryarly, a retired Boulder sheri ’s deputy who trains search-and-rescue dogs. “ is has to be part of your life. It goes way beyond a hobby, or it’s not going to work. It’s a calling.”

SARDUS members agree that it’s a labor a love based in their strong resolve to help others. Not only do the dogs and their handlers train multiple times a week, enlisting family and friends to hide, so the dogs have someone to search for, but handlers also attend seminars on a variety of topics and work together by laying trails for others to follow.

Trainers are always learning, so they can improve their canines’ ability to help in emergency situations.

Search-and-rescue dogs and their handlers are not paid; in fact, handlers spend a lot on the dogs, the equipment, the training and more. e goal is to be certi ed to go on missions, the term for helping law enforcement nd people, bodies or objects needed in an investigation.

Call the people trainers or handlers, but more importantly, they’re dog lovers who want to work as a team with their pets to help others.

The humility of training e trainers say it simply: Training their canines is humbling.

“Our dogs don’t make the mistakes,” Anjie Julseth-Crosby of Morrison said. “We do. ere’s so much to remember. e training is about me trying to understand what (the dogs) are saying. e human fails, not the dog.”

In fact, Julseth-Crosby, who started training her bloodhounds two years ago, has compiled a 19-page document called “ ings I wish I knew two years ago.”

Training involves having a dog follow a scent for several miles, helping the dog return to the SEE DOGS, P15 scent trail if needed and rewarding the dog when it nds the person or item it is directed to follow. 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.

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

“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.”

• 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.