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Show 'Go Find!' is the command, and the search is on 'Go find!" commands Ed Byers, Virginia is off and running, waiting in the sagebrush somewhere 11 the distance is Kathy Smith. A lew minutes ago Kathy left Ed and V?inia, a 16 month old German Sher-W, Sher-W, and the game had begun. Ed Mlds Virginia so she cannot see heje Kathy is headed. Kathy anders through the sagebrush mov-8 mov-8 back and forth, and then hiding netund a rock so Virginia can't see her. Alter the "Go find," command is p" Ed just tries to keep up with Sinia as she runs towards the ob- of the game. Virginia is a trained J scent search dog. She holds her Wdhigh picking up the scent as she es- When the scent becomes onger she slows down, and works ' way to where the scent ends, ma has learned that scent travels . lr. and when it ends, that means it drifted past where Kathy really is. lon t 'hen tUrnS and moves back K 8 the scent trail, zeroing in on The find is made. Jnd'rgmia loves t0 Play with a bal1' v as a reward f()r makjng tne find) emia and Ed play fetch with the Waff8"113 only 8ets to play with the alter a successful find. wnt 's. a difficult concept for a . n being to understand. To say a "lose is 500,000 to 7,000,000 times essilenSk 1Ve than a numan's is im" EVe ' ,e'but what does that mean? tauall thlng emits a scent con" "ten' even tnugh people don't mel1 it. Dogs do. As someone walks through sagebrush, for instance, they emit a scent in all directions, which hits the sagebrush and other growth and stops. It stays there for a short time and then dissipates. A lost person emits the same scent. A dog in the area can smell that scent and zero in on exactly where the scent is coming from. The problem is getting the dog in the area where the lost person per-son is. The quicker a dog can respond, the better chance the dog has of being successful. But Virginia does not go out and search for lost people out of some kind of altruistic motive or something. Virginia searches for Kathy because Virginia loves to play the game. The whole thing is nothing more than just a game to Virginia, a game Ed hopes Virginia will learn well. Ed is a ranger for the National Parks Service at the Dinosaur National Na-tional Monument. He acquired Virginia a little over a year ago as an abandoned puppy. Ed first took her m out of kindness, because it appeared Virginia had been abused. Only later did Ed learn Virginia was a purebred German Shepherd. Ed had always been interested in search dogs, but had never felt he had the money to go buy a registered dog from a good line. Virginia seemed to have all the necessary qualities of a good search doe good bone structure, good paws, and good nose, and a good attitude. Ed bought a couple of books about search dogs and contacted Alice Continued on page 2 ' ... ' " : . - "" -: . . ' V , k.. . v .' -7 V. i ' -! ' 1 ... , - .-. - : . ... --v. . V V.:C.i.'-.- - " . - ;--v;v;,." v " v. - - - . U '. v .1 ED BYERS and Virginia await the "search game" to begin. Virginia is about 16 months old and is now ready to begin her mission as a search dog. Search dog Continued from page 1 Stanley with the American Rescue Dog Association. From there Virginia's training began. Ed said he hasn't the time or money to join one of the Rescue Dog Associations, so Ed's own training has come through correspondence with Mrs. Stanley. Virginia's initial training was in obedience, obe-dience, and at about three months of age Ed started her searching. At first it was Ed or his wife going to hide and Virginia would find them. A little later other people were introduced into the game until now Ed hopes Virginia will "go find" someone she has never before seen. Ed and Virginia have only been on one search together, that at Steinaker Reservoir a couple of weeks ago when the Uintah County Search and Rescue Patrol, which Ed is a member, was searching for a drowning victim. In that particular search Virginia was unsuccessful, although she did pick up the scent of the victim on the island. Water searches are extrememly difficult, dif-ficult, since there is no way to practice that kind of search. Ed feels lucky to have Virginia, and to get such a dog for nothing Ed says is "beyond belief." Virginia will be used us-ed through Ed's affiliation with the Uintah County Search and Rescue Patrol. She should prove to be valuable addition, since one well trained dog is worth 30 human searchers. Virginia's training how amounts to a minimum of 20 minutes a day, if Kathy or someone else in the Dinosaur Quarry housing facility can find time to be lost for a few minutes. Ed is indebted in-debted to Kathy and other friends for spending their time toward this effort. Ed said this is his way of offering himself to the Uintah County Search and Rescue Patrol. Some people are scuba divers, some have mountain climbing expertise, some have other talents to offer. Virginia is Ed's contribution. con-tribution. He is confident she can be of value although he hopes she will never get the chance to look for a lost person. In order to keep Virginia out of work, Ed suggests people take precautions precau-tions while in the forest, and especially especial-ly in the backcountry. People should tell friends and relatives where they are going and when they are expecting to he back. People should stick to their plans once they have been set, so searchers sear-chers will not be out searching for someone so-meone who decided to go to Salt I,ake for the weekend. Ed plans to intensify Virginia's training when he gets more time this winter. Most of the searches she has made up to this point have been relatively short. Ed plans to have searches sear-ches that last as long as two hours and prepare Virginia even further for the possibility of a search. While he hopes it never comes, he also plans to have Virginia ready if she is ever needed. |
