Dog Has His Day : Rookie Bloodhound, Handler Find Missing Man After Other Rescuers Fail

As a law enforcement team, Don and Max are still rookies. So their successful search for a lost San Diego man last week proved to be a real high.

“If you could bottle how I felt, you’d really have something,” said Reserve Deputy Don Hanson. “And Max did just like he does in training. When he found that missing man, he put a paw on the man’s chest and licked his face.”

Max is a bloodhound.

Hanson, 43, is his owner and trainer.

Together they are the newest partners on the Orange County Sheriff’s Department bloodhound team. Hanson joined last January. Max became certified Dec. 4.

Last Wednesday, in the dark of night, Hanson and Max found an 84-year-old man with Alzheimer’s disease who had been missing from an Escondido convalescent home for 18 hours. The man was found trapped in bushes in a ravine. The patient was alert but scared, Hanson said.

Perhaps more impressive, Max scored a hit where other search dogs had struck out for more than seven hours.

Officials said that had the man not been found that night, he probably would have died of exposure.

“He’s doing fine now,” Hanson said in a recent interview at his Garden Grove residence. “I went back to see him, and he’s out of the hospital now.”

For Hanson and Max--both reserve deputies--the thrill of finding the man explains why they are volunteers in law enforcement, donating their services to the Bloodhound Team.

Hanson’s everyday job is in air conditioning and heating repair. His part-time work for the Sheriff’s Department is just a labor of love.

“I always wanted to be in law enforcement,” said Hanson. “Then one day I met a deputy who encouraged me to join the reserves.”

Hanson applied and was accepted after passing physical and mental screening tests and taking hours of classroom and field training. He is one of 260 reserve deputies--men and women--who choose from a number of law enforcement areas to work in.

Hanson picked the search and rescue division.

“I do a lot of hiking and camping--a lot of outdoor stuff,” Hanson said. “I thought search and rescue is where I’d fit in the best.”

When he applied for the reserves, Hanson had no dog. But having “always loved animals,” he was immediately attracted to the bloodhound team, which is part of the search and rescue division. Hanson found that there was an opening for someone to raise and care for a new bloodhound pup.

A breeder in Oklahoma offered to donate the pup to the Sheriff’s Department. And Hanson, who at the time was still being processed as a potential reserve deputy, volunteered to be its owner-trainer.

“We got Max on Oct. 17, 1993,” said Hanson. “He was just 12 weeks old--a little runt.”

Hanson’s wife, Rosie, laughed at the memory. “We don’t have children, so getting Max really changed our lives,” she said.

Both Hansons took part in Max’s training.

Rosie Hanson would often play the “lost person” whom Max would seek on outdoor trails.

“What we did was to train Max to take a particular scent and follow only that,” Don Hanson said. “A bloodhound smells the body cells that a person leaves. Most people don’t know it but the body sheds about 50 million body cells a day.”

Max’s training progressed rapidly. When he was certified Dec. 4, he received his badge and became one of four bloodhounds on the sheriff’s search and rescue team. Max trains with the other bloodhounds at least twice a month.

“Max has developed well,” said Orange County Sheriff’s Sgt. Ray Karr, who coordinates reserve deputies. “Don Hanson also has been absolutely dedicated to the program. They’re doing a great job, as was evidenced by their performance the other night in San Diego County.”

That was the night authorities in Escondido were frantically searching for the lost Alzheimer’s patient. The man had walked away from the convalescent home at 6 a.m. San Diego County search dogs began their hunt about 11 a.m. but got nowhere. By 7 p.m. those search teams were worn out and San Diego authorities asked for help.

“This was the first time I got to use Max on a search,” said Don Hanson. “The rest of the time I’d just been backup to other handlers because Max hadn’t been certified yet.”

At the Escondido convalescent home it was dark when Hanson gave Max a shirt that had been worn by the missing man. The bloodhound sniffed it and started leading Hanson on a path that led away from the care home. Only seven minutes later, Max found the missing man, trapped on his back in the nearby ravine.

“He was only about 200 yards away from the home, but no one had found him because with all the brush in the area, it was like looking for a needle in a haystack,” said Hanson.

The successful rescue made Rookie Max into Hero Dog Max. But for the animal it is all one big treat, said Hanson.

“He likes it because it’s a game with a reward at the end,” said Hanson. “We always give him a reward when he completes his training and finds someone.”

There is also a reward of a sort for Hanson.

“It’s a great feeling,” he said.