At the Dushore Tuesday Book Club picnic at Worlds End State Park on August 21 the guest speaker was Rose Norris. Her husband Mike trains search and rescue dogs. He has worked with the dogs locally to find missing persons at both Worlds End and Ricketts Glen State Parks.
Mike and Rose have three dogs they are training and using for search and rescue. They own two dogs and are fostering one.
Search and rescue dogs are trained the same way a pet is trained to be obedient by letting the animal know what activities are acceptable. For instance, if you don’t want your dog to lie on your furniture, you have to be firm and never let them on the furniture. Once you give your OK that they can get on a chair, sofa or bed, the dog thinks it will be alright to lay there until he is told to get down. The same holds true for letting a dog beg for food while the family is eating.
Special training for search and rescue dogs involves training the dog to find things. Dogs have a very sensitive sense of smell. They can smell a person’s odor from objects that an individual has worn or touched. The dog is trained by giving them a ball, watch, shirt or shoe you have worn or handled then the person hides and has the dog find them. It becomes a game for the dog. Some dogs are trained to find cadavers under water by training with scents from a mortuary.
There is a difference how the dog is handled while searching for a lost person. Labrador Retrievers will find the person then come back to you and let you know where the person is. They don’t have to be on a leash while they are working. Blood Hounds will find the person and then leave. They have to be on a very long leash while they are working. Once they find the person their job is done so they just leave. The trainer has to run with the dogs.
Mike trains dogs at the Bradford County Humane Society. Strays must be retrained to eliminate their bad habits and to socialize the animals so they can be adopted. Dogs that have been used as puppy mill providers can be afraid of people or unfamiliar sounds. They have to learn to trust and frequently never learn to trust anyone except the person who is kind to them. They can be the hardest dogs to get ready for adoption. Considering all, it is a rewarding profession.
The next Book Club meeting will be held at the Reformed Church in Dushore on Sept. 25 at 5 p.m. to carpool to Bruce Insinger’s farm to tour his petroleum business with guest speaker Jerry Kieffer and then go to Jugan’s Tree Farm for a picnic dinner. Please bring your own lawn chair and a dish to pass. Non-members welcome.