Sierra the Search Dog

Ruger and I go on searches all the time where we don’t have cell service. Occasionally we go on assignments where we don’t even have communications with our command post. That’s probably a bad idea but we do it because it has to be done. There aren’t always the resources to set up communication networks on the fly in remote areas.

After watching the development of satellite beacons and communicators for several years, I finally decided the technology was stable, and invested in a Garmin InReach Mini. I thought Mary Ann would be worried about the price – $350. To the contrary, she supports my having communications wherever I am.

Although it comes from Garmin, the king of GPS technology, the InReach’s main strength is as a communicator. It allows you to send text messages via satellite, transmit your location, and provides a rudimentary ability for others to follow your trip. It also has the ability send out an SOS that will bring rescue resources in your direction. All good tools to have in the wilderness, but the InReach is still not the tool you should use for finding your own way around the wilderness.

For starters, the screen is very small and the unit does not display a map. It can pair with a smartphone that has mapping capability, but smartphones and the wilderness don’t mix for me. Too many apps drain batteries.

The other reason for not relying on the InReach for navigation is that it’s not a very intuitive device. If you don’t have experience with other Garmin GPSs then you will struggle with the Mini. Carry the Mini as a communications tool, but do your navigating on a traditional GPS like the Oregon, Montana or 60-series.

Yes, Garmin does have other devices such as the 66i that marry the two functions. I will not opine on that because I have no experience with the 66i.

As for coverage, I couldn’t be happier. The InReach is able to communicate with satellites even in heavy western Washington tree cover. The only place where comms might be limited would be a canyon, because there’s not always a satellite directly overhead. But you can send the message and the unit will keep trying until it does acquire a satellite and then beep to tell you “message sent.”

The only down side is the cost of a subscription. But Garmin has several flexible plans that you can tailor to your needs. You can even turn your plan off if you know you won’t be hiking for a few weeks.

I bought my Mini because I already have a very specialized GPS that I use for both finding my way and keeping track of Ruger’s location. I only needed communications, which the InReach Mini provides in very good fashion.

The Bottom Line:

If you are an experienced user of GPS technology and find yourself routinely out of cell service then the InReach is a terrific add-on to your pack. It works as advertised and could be just the ticket for getting you out of a jam.

Stay Found.

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After a hard day on the trail you want a rich, hearty meal that will warm you to the core. To date, that’s meant freeze-dried food reconstituted with boiling water in a pouch. There are a number of good freeze-dried products out there and they perform as advertised. But is there a better way?

I think so.

I’ve switched to the military’s historically maligned Meal – Ready to Eat (MRE) for several reasons, including taste. That’s right, the old Meal – Rejected by Everyone is finally ready for prime time. There is a wide selection of entrees. They’re tasty. They fill you up without giving you an upset stomach. But here’s the surprise: in the long run these fully-hydrated meals are much lighter than the freeze dried stuff you’ve been carrying.

With a freeze-dried meal, you must use boiling water to rehydrate the product. That means you need:

• Stove
• Fuel
• Vessel for heating water
• Extra water dedicated to cooking, not drinking.

Although in a side-by-side comparison the MRE seems much heavier than its freeze-dried counterpart, when you add up the accessories the MRE concept is much lighter.

MREs can be heated with a special MRE heater that is about the size of a #10 envelope. But they can also be eaten cold and are still pretty darned tasty. You can’t eat a freeze-dried meal cold, and you can’t even rehydrate one with cold water. It takes hot water to do the job correctly.

Pro Tip: Don’t buy the full MREs. Just buy the individual components- entries, sides and deserts. They’re much cheaper and there’s less waste. You don’t need chewing gum and TP with every meal.  

Emergency Tip: If someone is hypothermic, don’t worry about heating the meal. While warm food or liquids provide an emotional benefit the majority of the body heating results from the calories consumed, not the food’s physical temperature. You’re much better off getting some calories, any calories, into the person quickly rather than setting up a stove, boiling water, and then waiting ten minutes to create an unnecessary “hot meal.”

In my rescue pack I now carry just MREs and the heater sleeves, along with a couple of sporks- one for me and one for whomever I rescue.

Stay Found.

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As Paul Harvey used to say, “this is closed circuit” for the SAR community, though others might find it interesting reading. In this blog post we’ll go through the preferred way to format descriptions of persons and send them by voice over a two-way radio.

Let me start with something that sounds ridiculous: The purpose of a description is NOT to identify a subject. That’s right, the purpose of a description is not to ID a missing subject or criminal. (Bob, that’s crazy talk!) Please let me explain. The purpose of a description is to quickly RULE OUT those who couldn’t possibly be the person you’re seeking. If you look at the person and can’t rule them out, the correct next step is to inquire further and make positive identification by talking with them.

OK, back to reality.

A description is no good unless everyone involved in the search has it, so how do you send that via radio? A good description will allow the receiving party to build a mental image as the information unfolds, ending up with a nearly complete picture in their head.

I’ve heard descriptions that went “red hair, blue jeans, three years old, white tennies, 40 pounds, pink shirt, about 3′ tall.” I don’t about you, but I can’t build a mental image on the fly from that description.

Law enforcement has developed a protocol for passing along descriptions that has stood the test of time. In this model, information flows from most obvious to least obvious, and top to bottom. Kinda the way our brains work.

When you look at someone from a distance, the first things you can see are race and gender. You can generally tell how old they are, at least within a range, and determine a build (stocky, slim, etc). The next round of information goes top to bottom, starting with hair color and ending with shoes if they can be seen.

The above description would become “white female, 3 years old, 3′ tall and 40 pounds. She’s got red hair, pink shirt, blue jeans and white tennies.”

And to keep up while that’s being read, your notebook shorthand becomes “W/F, 3 yrs, 3’/40lbs. Rd Hr, pink shirt, jeans and white shoes.”

Eye color is rarely known, and not many three-year olds have facial hair, but those items go between the hair color and clothing. For an adult that might become “W/M, 57 yrs, 5’10” 190#, Br/Blu, goatee, red shirt, camo pants and boots.”

By putting the same information in the same place every time, the recipient knows what’s coming. They’ll be more likely to record everything accurately the first time, which helps reduce radio traffic when repeats are necessary.

By convention, if you have the name, it goes first. “Subject is Anderson, Bill, w/m, 57 years……”

If your team hasn’t adopted these protocols I’d suggest first practicing them at a team meeting, and fold that into your radio procedure once everybody’s solid on the topic.

End of closed circuit. I hope you found this helpful and informative.

Stay Found!

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I think I blogged about this a couple years ago, but after an incident at a recent farmer’s market I’m motivated to address the topic again.

The other night a 9-year old boy did what 9-year olds do: he got bored and wandered off. Everything turned out fine. The market leadership responded quickly, set containment at the corners and had the parents call 911. Several of us began searching the market, but while I knew what the boy looked like (he’d been to my booth), not everyone else did. We had a description, but young blonde males in green t-shirts aren’t uncommon, and this particular boy looked old for his age.

My respectful suggestion? When you get to an event with your child take their picture. First and foremost you’ll have a lasting memory of a fun time. If your child does wander off then you’ll have an image that reflects not only their current age and appearance, but what they’re actually wearing that day! You can quickly text it to everyone who’s going to be looking for the child.

Child abductions are thankfully rare. Most disappearances are short-lived and result from honest confusion, perhaps salted with poor decision-making by the involved children. But pictures are free and can be deleted later if not needed. Better to have one and not need it, than need a picture and not have it.

Stay Found!

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I know you. We’ve met. You’re a responsible dog owner. You keep your dog under control, give other dogs appropriate space, and always always always pick up your pooch’s poop.

But what do you do when there’s no garbage can in the immediate vicinity? Some good spots are so remote there’s no reason to put a can there. In other places the cans attract vermin or get vandalised, and are being removed by park managers.

So when it’s time to head home after doing your civic doody, where do you carry it? Even the thickest of bags allow some odor to get out. You do not want that in your car or SUV, especially on a hot day- and double-especially if you’re making a stop along the way.

The gas cap cover on my Tahoe will easily hold a bag of poop, and my pickup will hold two! No odor inside the rig, and no danger of it coming loose from some other attachment point such as the radio antenna or windshield wiper. When you get to the gas station there’s always a garbage can, and plenty of other odors to mask the one you’re leaving.

So there you have it. A place to keep a baggie of poop without stinking up the car. You can be a responsible dog owner and not have your sinuses start to close up

*Urgent Footnote: You might not want to try this in Oregon, or any state that requires an attendant to pump your gas. That’s a surprise they don’t deserve.

*Even More-Urgent Footnote: do not EVER put a baggie of dog poop under your windshield wiper. An accidental activation has only two outcomes, both bad. 1) The bag breaks. Ewww. 2) The bag doesn’t break and is launched into the path of a motorcycle cop.

Stay Found!

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Sometimes you know something, but it takes a new situation to remind you of it, and to reinforce it.

I forgot a critical element when I started my new dog Rocco on the detection of human remains. I started out rewarding Rocco with the same toy Ruger likes because, well, it was in my pack. But Ruger’s toy is rubber and sometimes hard to pull out of a pocket quicky. With a beginning dog, you want to reward behavior instantly. So for no other reason than to avoid ripping my pants I switched to a toy that was similar, but made of canvas not rubber. It simply came out of my pocket easier.

Ho-Lee-Cow. I couldn’t believe the difference in Rocco.

His play has become much more animated. He’s much more reluctant to give me back the toy. He’s a complete bull-in-a-china-shop when I toss it someplace, and he’s even nipped my fingers a couple times trying to get it back from me. (Just part of being a dog handler.)

My point is that if you’re not getting the behavior you want from your dog, part of the problem might be the reward. Virtually every dog owner is trying to get certain behaviors from their companion. You first need to make sure the dog knows what’s expected, but the other half is making it worth their while.

Consider the following:

• Bigger version of the same toy (yes, it works).
• Let the dog choose from a sack of toys.
• Longer praise and play.
• Really yummier treats (if food is your reward).

The little twerps are actually capitalists who would put Rockefeller to shame. They’ll do what you want, but the price has to be right.

Stay Found.

I’m asked a lot by dog owners whether their dog could be a search dog. Many times they seem genuinely interested in the process, until they learn the training requires about 300 hours per year for two years to get that first dog mission-ready.

The American Kennel Club has an outstanding option for those whose dog needs a job, or in this case, a hobby. K9 Scent work (sometimes called Nosework) is an AKC competitive dog sport that very closely replicates the world of cadaver dogs (or drug or bomb dogs). Instead of finding dead humans, the dogs are trained to find the odors of three different essential oils.

Here’s a link to the AKC page on Scent Work https://www.akc.org/sports/akc-scent-work/.

You can also find instructors in your area by Googling “Scent Work” or “Nosework.”

Can your dog do this? Of course. Some of the pug-nosed dogs might struggle, but pretty much every other breed can handle this. Some individual dogs won’t enjoy the game, just like some people don’t like tennis or Monopoly.

So get out there and have a good time with your dog, and Stay Found!

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There are lots of good reasons to avoid leaving your dog in your car, but there are lots of good reasons why it happens. In SAR, we get our dogs used to being in the car because we might be given a task that doesn’t require the use of a dog. For example, helping to carry an injured subject out of the woods is an all-hands drill, but you don’t want a dog running around underfoot.

So if your dog is going to be in the car for an extended period, it’ll need potty breaks. Will you be around to do that?

Some dogs consider a car their “territory” and will defend it even if they’d welcome burglars into the family home. If yours is one of those dogs you should desensitize it to having strangers get it in and out of the car.

Start out by having a friend with whom the dog is familiar get it in and out, with you present. Have them (not you!) provide lots of treats as they go. Then move up to a stranger, but again with you present. Finally, have a stranger go up to the car with you nearby but out of sight.

If your dog just won’t accept a potty break from a stranger, that’s OK. At least you know. And if it will, all the better. It’ll put your mind at ease in situations where you might have some bigger issue going on.

Stay Found!

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Your grandmother was right. Chicken soup cures almost everything, and that’s even true in the dog world.

Two of the biggest problems with working dogs are being too hot, and being too cold. Chicken Soup, or more accurately low-sodium chicken broth, can help with each of those.

For hot days, freeze a can of chicken broth. Let it thaw just enough to get it out of the can, and drop it in your dog’s water bowl. It’ll not only cool the water, but as it melts the flavor will encourage your dog to drink. The only caution is against leaving the mixture out too long after the block completely melts. Just like any other food, it needs to be kept cool, or hot. Which brings me to the next suggestion.

When it’s cold, some hot chicken broth in a thermos is great when your dog gets back to the car. Cold days can be dry days, so your dog can still be dehydrated. Getting them to drink some lukewarm chicken broth can both warm and rehydrate your K9 buddy. How hot? Check a few drops on your wrist, just like you might check milk from a baby bottle.

Is chicken soup good for the soul? I don’t know, but chicken broth is good for the dog, and the dog is definitely good for your soul.

Stay Found!

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