Dogs Try to Pass the Sniff Test

Brutus eyes the scene before him.

It is a mountain of debris -- a twisted mass of tree branches, leaves and wood siding rising maybe 20 feet. He pants, ears high, whining slightly. All 90 pounds of his German shepherd body seem to indicate only one thing: Let’s have it.

“This is his game,” says Lee Haus, 39, his handler, as she smiles down at her 4-year-old search and rescue dog. “He’s anxious to get going.”

Only a couple of hours earlier, Sue Vodrazka and other rescue dog handlers had hidden volunteer “victims” -- teenage Explorer Scouts -- deep in the crevices of that debris.

“When the scent comes up, it’s really diffuse,” Vodrazka says. “So what this does is train the dog to ... give us an alert” even when the scent is difficult to detect.

It was all part of the two-day Iron Dog workshop that allows certified and noncertified rescue dogs -- and their handlers -- to test their mettle and enhance their skills using various search scenarios.

Starting at 11 a.m. today, 40 teams of dogs and handlers will compete in a series of events, including an obstacle course, at the Santa Fe Dam Recreation Area in Irwindale. The event is open to the public.

But on Saturday morning, Hero, Vodrazka’s 4-year-old black Labrador retriever, was just playing as his handler helped construct the practice course at Waste Management’s Bradley Landfill and Recycling Center in Sun Valley. The company often provides the location, debris and refuse for search-dog training.

“You have to read your dog,” says Vodrazka, 42, a Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputy and canine search specialist. She and Hero work out of Union Station, riding the Gold Line. “We’re a team.

“They’re the smart part,” she adds dryly, referring to the dogs.

“When buildings collapse, they look a lot like this,” says Wilma Melville, 72, founder of the National Disaster Search Dog Foundation and a former rescue-dog handler. Her Lab, Murphy, 14, is retired.

The nonprofit foundation, which sponsors the Iron Dog events, provides public safety agencies with dogs and trains the animals and their handlers.

“They have to be bold,” Melville says. She points to the debris. “Many dogs will look at that and walk away.”

Not Gypsy.

The border collie -- a third-generation rescue dog -- is also focusing on the mountain of debris.

“Yeah, ready to search, huh?” her handler, Tom Carney, a South San Francisco Fire Department inspector, says.

He unleashes the 3-year-old dog, which lets out a yelp as all 35 pounds of her bolts up a steep incline of wood slats, foliage and slippery siding with the determination of a mountain goat. Three-quarters of the way up, Gypsy loses her footing before catching it again, then proceeds undaunted until she gets to the top.

Meanwhile, Brutus has been dispatched to search the debris-strewn perimeter. He methodically circles a half-demolished structure, looks up, then puts his front paws on the side. Then he barks insistently.

Haus, his handler, lets out a hoot of delight. “Good job! Way to go!” She gives Brutus a well-worn chew toy.

“Victim, will you show your hand?” asks Long Beach Firefighter Matthew Dobberpuhl, who is helping out at the workshop. A well-concealed volunteer’s arm emerges from beneath a narrow piece of wood.

“To the dog, this is a game,” says Melville, who started the foundation 10 years ago after working the Oklahoma City bombing site. “To us it’s deadly serious.”

From atop the debris comes the furious bark of Gypsy. “Show me! Show me!” says Carney, following her.

Gypsy stands where a volunteer victim has been embedded deep under foliage and wood. Carney gives her a toy and the dog walks onto an outcropping, standing there in triumph.

“See how confident she was?” Carney, 40, says, walking the dog down the side of the mountain. “She got right into where the scent was.”

Gypsy lies down, panting, looking up at Carney. “That’s what they live for -- the find. See, she’s happy.”

carla.hall@latimes.com