Search and rescue dogs ready for action
On Nov. 10, 2004, a 12-year old North Belle Vernon girl that threatened to run away from home was reported missing later that day. Eight months earlier, on Aug. 21, 80-year-old Evadell Kreinbrook walked out of Fencil’s Personal Care Home in Connellsville undetected.
While both incidents were unrelated, they each shared the same rescue efforts that successfully located Kreinbrook and the girl.
Thanks to Mondo, the girl was found the same day in a wooded area near her residence.
Mondo also assisted with other specially trained dogs in the search for Kreinbrook, who was found by emergency personnel the next morning in a separate wooded area about one mile from the North Avenue nursing home.
Mondo is a 3½-year-old German shepherd owned by Matt Smelser, the operations manager for Rostraver/West Newton Emergency Services. Smelser and his 76-pound dog are part of the Tri-County K-9 Search and Rescue Team, a fledgling non-profit organization devoted to assisting in search and rescue attempts of people reported missing in Fayette, Greene and Westmoreland counties.
The team also is directly dispatched to various missing person incidents through Rostraver/West Newton Emergency Services and Fayette County 911.
Smelser of Belle Vernon is one of 12 members and team president that helped form the organization in April 2004 after their departure from the Fayette County Sheriff’s Tactical Search and Rescue team.
Since then, the Tri-County K-9 Search and Rescue Team has continued to train their dogs once or twice a week under the direction of team leader Barb Shumar of Uniontown.
“We’re pretty fresh,” said Shumar.
With more than 20 years of dog obedience training under her belt, Shumar said her previous experience as a 4-H leader led to her initial involvement with canine search and rescue after the Fayette County Cooperative Extension Office asked her to start a dog club about five years ago. Although the club never came to fruition, Shumar said she spoke with several other people that were interested and learned from the extension office of the county’s search and rescue team, which invited them to attend an actual mission.
“I’ve been around dogs all my life,” said Shumar, the owner of Gracie, a 4-year old Belgian Malanois trained in all search and rescue areas.
Right now, Shumar is training Chase II, a 5-month old golden retriever owned by Tina and Ken Thompson of Indian Head.
The Thompsons moved to the area three years ago from Monterey, Calif., where they used to aid in the rescue and rehabilitation of sick sea mammals at the Marine Mammal Center, a similar non-profit organization based in Sausalito, Calif.
The couple and their dog meet with Shumar twice a week at her 64-acre farm, where Chase II and the other dogs undergo training in tracking, trailing, air scenting and cadaver tactics used to locate missing people.
“This is not just something you do and just forget about it…you need to brush (the dog) up on it every week,” said Shumar.
Shumar suggested it’s best to train a dog before they turn a year old. The breed usually doesn’t matter. When training the dogs, Shumar said, everything becomes a game, such as using the same voice pitch to let them know they will be rewarded well.
“It’s like a puzzle: Every piece goes together,” she said.
In order to keep those pieces together, Shumar stressed the importance of having the dog’s owner reinforce those skills at least once a week, which includes basic commands.
Outside of Shumar’s training, the team meets several times per week, weather permitting, at various locations in each of the three counties.
“They (the dogs) get to the point where they get victim loyalty not with the one handling them but with the person they find,” she said.
“That’s (the dog’s) main drive, when they know they’re going to get a reward when they find somebody.”
Because the team works closely with emergency personnel, member Jack Kimberlain of Connellsville said members are trained in CPR and first aid and are required to know how to set up a landing zone if needed and take a course related to helicopter safety in the event an emergency helicopter is needed.
Although anyone can become a member, Kimberlain said they must first meet several requirements. Under the current bylaws, Kimberlain said, applicants must be at least 18 years old, undergo a background check and attend all training sessions and callouts. Then, they are granted a three-month probation before being voted in by existing members.
Kimberlain said the team is working with the Pennsylvania Search and Rescue Council (PSARC) in adopting standards for ground search and rescue personnel working in such operations, since there is no state level certification for search and rescue organization members or their dogs.
The team level certification process would require the team to meet and go through an equipment check of all items required by PSARC. It also requires that 51 percent of the team have field team membership or equivalent status and two members have field team leader status.
“Right now we’re strictly people with dogs…but that’s what we’re working toward,” said Shumar.
When someone is missing and the team is called in, all Smelser has to say to Mondo is, “It’s time to go to work.”
For Gunner, Kimberlain’s 2-year-old Labrador retriever, sitting beside his owner after coming out of the woods is a sign that’s he’s found someone. Kimberlain said Gunner is trained for land search, cadaver work and trailing a scent.
In the case of the missing 12-year-old-girl, Mondo’s reward was a steak. For Smelser, it was “like being on top of the world.”