The Poster
It
must have been the 5th time that I sat in that corner café after search
training, reading the same “Missing” girl poster as I ate.
She started to look familiar, but I only realized it was because her face haunted me… it was everywhere I went in town, the grocery store, the fuel station and even on the back of T-Shirts. The teenage girl had gone missing in 2007 and the town has never given up hope of finding her.
She started to look familiar, but I only realized it was because her face haunted me… it was everywhere I went in town, the grocery store, the fuel station and even on the back of T-Shirts. The teenage girl had gone missing in 2007 and the town has never given up hope of finding her.
“Missing”
The one term
that no parent wants to hear when it is prefixed to their child’s name;
“Missing”. Every day 2,185 children
across the nation are reported “Missing”, this unfortunately is just a minute
travesty considering in one calendar year 797,525 children under the age of 17
will be reported “Missing” according to the Center for Missing and Exploited
Children.
Almost every
child by the time they’re 16 years old has done the standardized threat of “I’m
going to run away.” They’d pack a peanut butter and jelly sand which, teddy
bear and favorite book into a back pack; while some never made it passed the
end of the drive way; others wouldn’t have made it home without the help of a
four legged Emergency responder, that has a Nose that knows no boundaries; The
Search & Rescue Dog.
“This Nose Knows, Trust in It”
The number of children that have
been recovered by search and rescue dogs is truly unknown for it continues to
grow every day. These amazing lifesaving
dogs are trained to detect human scent. 
As a Search and Rescue handler I have been asked many times, how can does your dog pick out my scent from all the others? To fully answer this question I sat down with Phantom K9’s Master Trainer and Instructor, Ron Barton.
“The best way I can explain how a dog breaks up a scent is by using the “Spaghetti” analogy. Dogs smell components, where as the handler smells items as a completed whole. Example: Someone is making Spaghetti, the K9 comes in and smells all the ingredients that are involved. The handler may be able to pick out a few potent ingredients, but still smells it as a completed whole.” explains Barton. Barton has trained hundreds of dogs during his career as a Military Working Dog Trainer at Lackland air force base and ensured the safety of some of our Nation’s highest ranking officials with the help of his K9 partners.
“About 35 % of the dog’s brain is assigned to
smell related operations, whereas a human’s brain is only assigned to 5% of
smelling operations. The Dog’s nose actually extends from the nostrils to the
back of its throat, housing about 300 million olfactory cells, about 50 more
times as many as a human’s. Dogs can afford to assign certain areas of their
smell memory cells for specific odors.” Barton explains, a human might be able
to smell a teaspoon of sugar in a cup of coffee, but a dog could detect a teaspoon
of sugar in 1,320,000 gallons (size of 2 Olympic swimming pools) of
coffee. “The mechanics of a dog’s
nose is astounding in its self.” Barton explains when air enters a dog’s nose it splits into
two separate paths – one for breathing and one for smelling. “When a dog
exhales, the air going out exits through
a series of slits on the sides of the dog’s nose. This means the outgoing air
doesn’t interfere with the dog’s ability to analyze incoming odors; in fact,
the outgoing air is even thought to help new odors enter. Even better, it
allows dog’s to smell continuously over many breathing
cycles.” During his career Barton has had the chance to work and study with
many world renowned animal behaviorists and psychologists.
“An incident that I never forgot was when a Law Enforcement K9 team arrived at a two story house where it was reported a 3yr old girl had went missing. When the K9 team had arrived several officers had already spent hours looking for the girl and found nothing. The officer asked for something the girl had worn that had not yet been washed. His K9 smelled the article of clothing, and was given the command to find the little girl. Within 15 minutes of their arrival to the house, the K9 found the little girl, asleep under a pile of clothes inside a closet on the second floor of the house.” Barton has used his K9s in many different situations and used this incident to remind us that the nose knows and to trust in it.
As we talk about trusting in the Search and Rescue dog’s nose and abilities I am reminded of an Interview that I had done with some of Law Enforcement’s finest. Officer Spears who is the Division Commander of the Belton Missouri Police Department has been involved in some of the most complex missing children cases in the area. With 35 years on the department Officer Spears has had to make that call for the four legged Emergency responders. “In the situations that we’ve had to use tracking or cadaver dogs, it has saved us time and man power. The use of a well trained certified handler and K9 prove to be effective time and again.”
“An incident that I never forgot was when a Law Enforcement K9 team arrived at a two story house where it was reported a 3yr old girl had went missing. When the K9 team had arrived several officers had already spent hours looking for the girl and found nothing. The officer asked for something the girl had worn that had not yet been washed. His K9 smelled the article of clothing, and was given the command to find the little girl. Within 15 minutes of their arrival to the house, the K9 found the little girl, asleep under a pile of clothes inside a closet on the second floor of the house.” Barton has used his K9s in many different situations and used this incident to remind us that the nose knows and to trust in it.
As we talk about trusting in the Search and Rescue dog’s nose and abilities I am reminded of an Interview that I had done with some of Law Enforcement’s finest. Officer Spears who is the Division Commander of the Belton Missouri Police Department has been involved in some of the most complex missing children cases in the area. With 35 years on the department Officer Spears has had to make that call for the four legged Emergency responders. “In the situations that we’ve had to use tracking or cadaver dogs, it has saved us time and man power. The use of a well trained certified handler and K9 prove to be effective time and again.”
“Hug A Tree”
Many
Search and Rescue Team Members donate their time to help teach children as
young as 3 years old what to do if they ever should become lost.
The program derives from its primary message: If you’re lost – stay put and hug a tree until help arrives. Team members show children how to survive using different items from trash bags to stay dry to how to use compact disks to signal for help.
The Hug A Tree program has saved hundreds of lives and reached thousands of children since it was put into play in the 1980’s. Currently some search teams in city areas have teamed up with Law Enforcement, showing children what to do if they should become lost in the shopping mall, city park or city itself.
So whether you encourage your child’s teacher or talk to other parents on the block, call your local Search and Rescue Team and schedule a Hug A Tree demonstration today and don’t let your child become a statistic.
The program derives from its primary message: If you’re lost – stay put and hug a tree until help arrives. Team members show children how to survive using different items from trash bags to stay dry to how to use compact disks to signal for help.
The Hug A Tree program has saved hundreds of lives and reached thousands of children since it was put into play in the 1980’s. Currently some search teams in city areas have teamed up with Law Enforcement, showing children what to do if they should become lost in the shopping mall, city park or city itself.
So whether you encourage your child’s teacher or talk to other parents on the block, call your local Search and Rescue Team and schedule a Hug A Tree demonstration today and don’t let your child become a statistic.
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