Great report on the Nebraska Task Force 1 Search and Rescue dog teams!
By: Kelly Sommariva
KSommariva@klkntv.com
The urban search and rescue team was sent to the world trade center after 9/11 and the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans. They’re called Nebraska Task Force 1, and with the help of expert dog handlers they prepare for the worst right here in the Capital city.
In the entire country there are just over 200 of these nationally certified rescue dogs. The Capital city is home to four of them, and if all goes well, another three by next month. The dogs and handlers are hard at work preparing for that test and today we had an exclusive look on their training.
Buried alive after a natural disaster…. this sound (Dog barking)… Could save your life. Dog Handler Damon Wirth says, “What our dogs do is detect live, human scent. If there’s a tornado, earthquake, any kind of national disaster man made disaster we have our dogs here that are going to be in there to locate the people we can’t find.”
It’s part of the Nebraska Task Force One, Urban Search and Rescue Training. Search Team Manager, Steve Dolezal says, “This is probably the hardest thing you can do with a dog”
Firefighter Damon Wirth and his dog George were paired together last winter. He says, “He’s with me 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. So you build a really tight bond”
When the dogs find a person, they’re rewarded with plenty of playtime. But they have to learn to do it in some of the most difficult conditions. The dogs are able to quickly search a large and potentially dangerous area… But they have to complete hours of rigorous training first. “Our dogs have to do the agility portion they have to learn the scent portion plus they have to get it up on here plus they have to do it in whatever kind of environment we’re going to get them to.”
Not all the handlers are firefighters but they are all volunteers. And they all do it for one reason. “The chance to be able to save one person, that’s ultimately what we’re here for is to be able to make a difference in one person’s life…if our dogs can find that one person to get at and make a difference in their life down the road I think it’s totally worth the time we volunteer and dedicate to this.”
Three of these rescue dogs training today are actually rescues themselves from an organization in California. The trainers flew out there last winter to get paired up with their dog. If you’re interested in learning more about their search and rescue team you can log on to searchdogfoundation.org or http://www.lincoln.ne.gov/city/fire/usar/index.htm
I hope more police departments take notice. Rescue dogs can become great detection dogs as Milwaukee Police Department’s new detection dog, Shaka, has proven! She is new to the force and has already proven how valuable she is. Great story…
A second leash on life
Milwaukee acquires new drug detection dog, Shaka, a pit bull who was saved from euthanasia
BY RAYMOND RENDLEMAN
The Clackamas Review, Jun 22, 2011
Just five years ago, Shaka wasn’t content to wait on a New York pound’s death row, and her natural love of playing fetch caught the eye of a pit-bull advocate and catapulted her to eventual stardom among Milwaukee police as the force’s best new tool for tracking down drugs.
Officer Billy Wells is handler for Shaka, the Milwaukee Police Department's new drug detection dog.(RAYMOND RENDLEMAN / CLACKAMAS REVIEW)
Since her original owner abandoned her without a trace, no one is sure whether Shaka is five and a half or six years old. Shaka is not the only American Staffordshire Terrier-type pit bull who has demonstrated a tracking ability, but her skill is without peer nationally.
Out of the 20 times that Shaka has been deployed in her first few months at MPD, she’s found drugs in 18 cases. Officer Billy Wells certified Shaka through the Oregon Police Canine Association, based in Oregon City, but it might be more accurate to say that Shaka got her handler state certification in scoring 100 percent.
(more…)
Our troops face so much stress in combat, but for some, they may face stress within their own units. Soldier Tracy Cooper-Harris had to endure both. After serving honorably, and transitioning back to the civilian world, a lot of the stress and tough memories carried on with her. Thanks to her rescue dog turned service dog, Blaze, life has become less stressful and more joyful, for the both of them.
US Army Iraqi War veteran Tracey Cooper-Harris takes a break with Blaze during his training at the Sam Simon Foundation in Malibu, Ca. Blaze began his training with Assistance Dog Program Instructor Lori Ramey several months earlier before Harris began working with Ramey and Blaze. (Hans Gutknecht/Staff Photographer)
By Dennis McCarthy of the Daily News, Los Angeles
They’re a team now, best friends – the tall, good-looking rescued dog and the Iraq War veteran battling post-traumatic stress disorder.
Wherever Tracey Cooper-Harris goes these days she knows Blaze has her back.
He’s the eyes in the back of her head. Her 24-hour protector and comfort blanket, all rolled into one. He’s her hero.
Lori Ramey, a trainer for the Sam Simon Foundation, which provides rescued dogs for the deaf, found Blaze sitting alone in a kennel at the Ventura County Animal Shelter in Camarillo early last year.
He was a stray found wandering the streets. Shelter workers told her he was probably a backyard dog with little or no human contact. They put his age at around a year and named him Blaze for his bright red coat.
“He was so calm and composed just sitting there, exactly the kind of dog I was looking for,” Ramey said.
Her job for the Simon Foundation was to find the perfect dog to train as a psychiatric service dog for an Army veteran suffering from PTSD.
Ramey wanted Blaze, but there was one problem. So did a lot of other people. The shelter held a lottery.
“Every once in awhile, fate intervenes,” Ramey said. “I won.”
It didn’t take Blaze long to show his real colors once she sprung him from the shelter. He wasn’t the mellow dog Ramey thought he was.
“He began jumping on everything in sight, grabbing anything he could get in his mouth, and wildly running around chasing
squirrels and birds,” she said.
“He had conned me. All that calm demeanor was a lie.”
It took Ramey almost a year to calm Blaze down and teach him the tasks Cooper-Harris would need done.
To stand behind her at the ATM and make sure nobody got too close to her on the streets. To turn on the lights in her apartment so she wouldn’t be walking into a dark room at night, the worst time for her.
To find her cellphone and keys and bring them to her in case there was an emergency and she couldn’t get them.
To become her Man Friday.
While Ramey trained Blaze, Cooper-Harris spent her days going to classes at California State University, Northridge, before heading over to the Sepulveda VA for her PTSD counseling sessions with doctors.
By December of 2010, it was finally time for Blaze and Cooper-Harris to meet. It was love at first sight. Blaze jumped all over her, licking her face, his tail frantically wagging, knocking over everything in sight.
“It was like fate decided these two should be together,” Ramey said.
In April, after three months of hard work at the foundation in Malibu bonding with Blaze, Cooper-Harris brought him home to her apartment in Pasadena.
“He’s my de-stresser, my constant physical reminder that I’m here in the present, and not to let my mind wander back to the past,” she said last week.
“When I wake up in the middle of the night the first thing I look for is Blaze. He’s usually knocked out in the corner snoring. But just seeing him there makes me feel safe and stay in the present, not the past.”
read the rest of the article by clicking here…Daily News
