Dogs Sniffing Out a New Purpose in Life : When It Comes to Finding Lost People, Pets Put Noses to Task

Bill Anderson has this philosophy about canines.

Anderson, a Rancho Bernardo resident who recently volunteered his time, money and dog to help find lost people and assist in disaster situations, thinks canines can do more than just “run around and breathe and look pretty.”

He said his Doberman, after help from the California Rescue Dog Assn. (CARDA), is trained to pick up a human scent and track it. Now Anderson is teaching Misty to follow specific human scents.

“People that don’t work with their dogs don’t know what they’re missing. It is a whole new relationship,” he said.

Shirley Hammond, a seven-year member of CARDA, said it’s exciting to see what her dog can do. “You know that your dog has a unique tool--his nose,” she said. “You realize a dog’s nose is much like a human’s eyes.”

Hammond’s dog was responsible for finding two of three children buried during mud slides in Northern California in 1982. According to CARDA coordinator Larry Peabody, rescue teams spent 30 hours searching for the three children in a mud slide in Pacifica and turned up nothing. But once the dogs were brought in, two of the children were found within 20 minutes, and the third 10 minutes later.

Hammond said that rescue teams often wait until the end of a search to bring in the dogs, lowering the dogs’ chances of finding people alive. Now, she said, authorities are calling the dogs in earlier as word of their success rate spreads.

This week, the dogs proved invaluable in Mexico City as 13 CARDA members assisted authorities digging through the rubble in their desperate attempts to locate earthquake victims.

The trips to Mexico were paid for by the Swiss government, which, as the leader in rescue dog teams, sent the first rescue dogs to Mexico. But for most traveling, the CARDA members pick up their own bills. Peabody said they spend their own money on training and on the missions, and some lose time at work in order to look for lost people.

CARDA, which has about 90 members and originated eight years ago in Northern California, is slowly expanding south.

Although major disaster rescues receive more attention, most of the group’s work is done in wilderness rescues. “The only people that call us are agencies (police, sheriff and fire departments and national and state parks), so we’re not that close to the public,” Newcomb said.

Dog owners must have an extraordinary amount of commitment to participate in the rescue teams, Newcomb said. “They’ve almost got to dedicate their lives to it,” he said. “It takes a lot of time and money.”

Many people are enthusiastic about joining and then quit after four training sessions because they realize how much work is involved, Newcomb said.

Two of the newer members of CARDA are the first two San Diego County residents to start training for wilderness rescues.

Susan Williams, of Poway, has a Bouvier des Floundres that is a certified tracker and is now an apprentice in the program. Williams’ dog, Fenres, is capable of following a trail for up to two hours after a 10-week training program.

“It was just something I thought would be rewarding to do with my dog,” she said.

The biggest reward is finding someone who has been missing. “It’s probably the satisfaction of seeing someone rescued and seeing them appreciate it,” Peabody said.

CARDA uses two methods of finding people--air scent, which is used to find the source of any human scent, and tracking, which is used to trace a particular scent.

Peabody said that last year CARDA was involved in 131 rescue missions, varying from lost hikers and fishermen to residents of rest homes who wandered away from the grounds. Among those, the dogs helped find 98 survivors and found seven who were dead. There are still 14 missing, and 12 criminals escaped.

For disasters, the air scent method is used. The dogs are directed by hand signals because the handlers do not follow the dogs into a disaster area, according to Newcomb. For wilderness expeditions, tracking is used more often. The handler’s own smell will not distract the dog from the scent he is following.

Although rescuers never know whether they will find a person dead or alive, Hammond said, the important thing is to locate the body.

“I know how important it is to the family to complete the bereavement process,” she said.

Although time and money are constraints on participation, there is no typical CARDA member. They range from a cement mason and stewardess to a nursery school aide and agricultural biologist.

Peabody said volunteers have spent 2,767 hours in searches and are estimated to have saved public agencies $69,275. CARDA is a nonprofit organization and does not charge for its services.

“It’s an opportunity to give your dog some social value,” Anderson said.