Kelsy's search for Kosmo

Kosmo was an older yellow lab, 14 years old, with back legs that didn't work too well sometimes.  Looking back at the case now, I see that I missed several things and provided bad advice to Kosmo's owner.  Kosmo went missing 12/18, and Kelsy started searching on 12/20.  We used his bed as a scent article.  Kelsy immediately took me to some bushes not far from the house, but Kosmo was not there, and there was no trail he might have taken.  I started her again, and she took me down the driveway to the road, and up another driveway to a wooded lot.  I'm 90% sure this was not Kosmo's trail because Kosmo was found in the bushes 4 days later, fifty feet from his front porch, alive but gravely ill.  Even though I knew Kosmo's back legs didn't always work well, I reasoned that he might have gone that far if his joints warmed up once he started walking.  It happened that way on a previous case.  I remember, now, that Kosmo's owner said his weakness was neurological, not joint related, and more walking made it worse.  The scenario I imagined was not logical, now that I think about it.

Kelsy follows scent trails, and pools of scent are difficult for her.  This is why we use her for dog cases and not cat cases.  Cats tend to leave scent pools without any directionality.  For those situations, we use a cat detection dog, trained to thoroughly check an area for any cats.  Well, this was a case like a missing cat case, where Kosmo hadn't gone far, and he had left a non-directional pool of scent rather than a trail Kelsy could follow.

Before we started, I told Kosmo's owner that Kelsy usually does not track right up to the missing dog.  She has found five dogs directly, and she has been confirmed to be on the right trail most of the time.  In most cases, the missing dog had already been picked up by someone before we started searching, so there was no dog there for Kelsy to find.  As I told Kosmo's owner, Kelsy has been on the wrong trail a few times, and I did not realize it until we had followed that trail a long way.  Kelsy is supposed to give me a negative signal when we don't have the scent of the dog we are looking for.  This is something we have trained on, and I don't know why we fail in this way some times.  Maybe there is a problem with the scent article.  Most definitely there is a communication problem, where Kelsy is misunderstanding what I want and I am not reading her right.  Mistakes do happen, and the owner knew this before we started.

The worst mistake was the advice I gave her.  Before I left that day, I told her that, "At least we can be certain Kosmo isn't somewhere near the house in the bushes."  Obviously that wasn't the case because Kosmo was found not far from the house.  I should not have advised her as I did.  Kelsy can be fooled by a directionless scent pool, and I should not have been so certain Kosmo wasn't nearby.

Kosmo's owner heard him bark, faintly, and they found him in the bushes four days after he had gone missing.  He survived for a while, but he did not regain full health.  Kosmo's owner and the vet decided it was best to euthanize him on January 7th.  The bad advice I gave Kosmo's owner certainly didn't help him and it may have hastened his end.

One lesson I could learn from this is that Kelsy and I should not be doing searches if we can be mistaken in this way.  I have to weigh that against the good we have done when we found those five dogs.  For now, I will continue to work on training with Kelsy in order to try to determine where we are failing to communicate.  In our most recent training session, she performed flawlessly.  I hope the lesson learned from the search for Kosmo will help us on a future case.

Temp: 42°F
Feels like: 38°F
Fog
Humidity: 92%
Wind: SW 6 mph

Name:		Track 099
Date:		Dec 20, 2011 11:04 am
Map: (valid until Jul 15, 2012)		View on Map
Distance:		3.39 miles
Elapsed Time:		2:46:18
Avg Speed:		1.2 mph
Max Speed:		7.7 mph
Avg Pace:		49' 07" per mile
Min Altitude:		0 ft
Max Altitude:		381 ft
Start Time:		2011-12-20T19:04:53Z
Start Location:
	Latitude:	47.496607º N
	Longitude:	122.469742º W
End Location:
	Latitude:	47.496812º N
	Longitude:	122.469717º W

Kelsy's search for Sadie

Sadie was hit by a bus on December 8th.  She slipped out of the car door in her driveway as her owner was attempting to secure her, and she ran toward the articulated Metro bus.  The bus clipped Sadie, and as her owner ran into the street trying to stop traffic, Sadie ran off into the woods, limping. 

Kelsy started tracking the next day around 11 AM.  Kelsy picked up heavy scent right across the street from Sadie's home, indicating to me that Sadie had come back in the night and spent time near the house.  Kelsy followed the trail down through the woods and to the beach.  The scent seemed especially strong on a segment of the trail, and I interpreted that to mean that Sadie had run back and forth several times on that section.  At the beach, the scent trail entered the tidal zone, and high tide had erased any scent below the bulkhead.

Another branch of the trail led north of Sadie's house.  Sadie was eventually found, that afternoon, several blocks east of home.  The vet gave her a temporary splint, and she was scheduled to have surgery and get a cast for her broken leg.  I did not receive any independent confirmation that Sadie had been on the trail Kelsy followed. 

Now for Seattle, WA (98166)

Temp: 33°F
Feels like: 33°F
Fog
Humidity: 93%
Wind: E 3 mph

Name:		Track 097
Date:		Dec 9, 2011 11:11 am
Map: (valid until Jul 15, 2012)		View on Map
Distance:		2.41 miles
Elapsed Time:		2:22:31
Avg Speed:		1.0 mph
Max Speed:		5.4 mph
Avg Pace:		59' 03" per mile
Min Altitude:		0 ft
Max Altitude:		250 ft
Start Time:		2011-12-09T19:11:51Z
Start Location:
	Latitude:	47.500838º N
	Longitude:	122.376206º W
End Location:
	Latitude:	47.500601º N
	Longitude:	122.376233º W

Kelsy's search for Rudy

9/22/2011    Rudy is a small, cute, friendly dog who dug under the fence of his backyard in Auburn.  I advised the owner that small dogs like Rudy are usually picked up quickly, and that large neon signs would be more useful than a search dog in such a case.  I explained that the presence of a search dog can inspire the finder of a little dog to come forward and return the dog.  Rudy's owner opted for a search after being told the low likelihood that Kelsy would find Rudy. 

Now for Seattle, WA (98166)

Temp: 74F
Feels like: 74F
Mostly Cloudy
Humidity: 56%
Wind: WSW at 8 mph
Updated: 9/22/11 2:25 PM PDT

Name:		Track 077
Date:		Sep 22, 2011 1:55 pm
Map: (valid until Mar 20, 2012)		View on Map
Distance:		0.71 miles
Elapsed Time:		37:33.8
Avg Speed:		1.1 mph
Max Speed:		5.8 mph
Avg Pace:		53' 06" per mile
Min Altitude:		219 ft
Max Altitude:		422 ft
Start Time:		2011-09-22T20:55:23Z
Start Location:
	Latitude:	47.316718º N
	Longitude:	122.257666º W
End Location:
	Latitude:	47.316779º N
	Longitude:	122.256739º W

 Kelsy followed this scent trail slowly, even though it was less than 24 hours old.  I attributed this to the high heat and low humidity.  The trail led around the block in a loop almost 1 mile long, and ended right near the point of escape.  I imagine that Rudy did a little exploring and then returned home.  The neighbors who found him said they picked him up right near his home.  They claimed not to have seen Rudy's fliers the previous evening.  Another possibility is that they were toying with the idea of keeping him until they saw the large neon posters, the volunteer searchers, and the search dog.  They called the owner to report finding him just as Kelsy and I were completing the loop.

I would not have started Kelsy on this search if I had known it would go on for almost a mile.  I expected the scent trail would go a few houses and end.  Also, the weather map showed rain coming, but that rain evaporated before it reached us.

Kelsy's search for Rocky

Rocky is a skittish Chihuahua missing in Puyallup.  Kelsy started to search for him on August 3rd, 2011, around 9 AM.  Kelsy followed the trail for about a mile until it ran into a large cemetery where they had recently mowed the lawn.  Due to the interference of the lawn mowers, and because the day was heating up much faster than expected, I called off the search after an hour and refunded the search fee.

Now for Puyallup, WA (98371)

Temp: 66F
Feels like: 66F
Fair
Humidity: 64%

Wind: CALM at calm mph

Updated: 8/3/11 9:25 AM PDT

Not only did the day heat up fast, but there was no shade, so Kelsy felt the heat even more.  While she searched, Kelsy worked the scent trail steadily.  The trail looped through an apartment complex, and Kelsy crossed her own trail, which was unusual.  I wished we had started at dawn, like on the Lucy search.   Rocky was never found, as far as I know.

Name:		Track 066
Date:		Aug 3, 2011 8:30 am
Map: (valid until Jan 30, 2012)		View on Map
Distance:		0.94 miles
Elapsed Time:		43:38.1
Avg Speed:		1.3 mph
Max Speed:		9.6 mph
Avg Pace:		46' 13" per mile
Min Altitude:		121 ft
Max Altitude:		157 ft
Start Time:		2011-08-03T15:30:34Z
Start Location:
	Latitude:	47.173554º N
	Longitude:	122.299268º W
End Location:
	Latitude:	47.173411º N
	Longitude:	122.298922º W

Kelsy's Search for Lucy

Lucy came home just as Kelsy was getting ready to search, just as the sun was coming up on August 4th, 2011.  Lucy is a Taiwan dog.  Her owner, Robert, walked her in the neighborhood all the time.  When he let her out at night, he didn't realize the gate wasn't latched, and Lucy didn't come back in like usual.  She had been missing two days, and Robert, being 84 years old, wasn't able to search for her too actively. 

Temp: 60F
Feels like: 60F
Sunny
Humidity: 77%
Wind: CALM at calm mph
Updated: 8/4/11 5:25 AM PDT

Kelsy and I got there just before dawn, and I rigged her up with the harness and long leash.  She was just about to take the scent from the scent article, and Lucy trotted right in the gate just as the sun peeked over the horizon.  I took Kelsy to play at Luther Burbank Park to make it a fun day for her since she didn't get to do the search.

Practice search for Komu at Point Defiance

It started raining just in time for this search, making for perfect conditions. A half hour before the search it was too hot and dry:
Now for Tacoma, WA (98421)

Temp: 67F
Feels like: 67F
Cloudy
Humidity: 59%
Wind: WSW at 6 mph
Updated: 7/12/11 7:05 PM PDT

Just as we started, the rain created ideal conditions:
Now for Tacoma, WA (98421)

Temp: 61F
Feels like: 61F
Rain Shower
Humidity: 81%

Wind: WSW at 8 mph

Updated: 7/12/11 8:25 PM PDT

Apparently Kelsy worked one loop of the trail backwards, and she cut off another loop of Komu's trail.  Other than that, she worked this day-old trail pretty well.  We came upon a deer, standing there looking at us about 30 feet ahead, and that distracted Kelsy.  It took me a couple of minutes to get her focused on Komu's trail again.  Fortunately I saw the dear and knew that was what was getting her all excited, so I was able to correct her and get her back on track.

I knew the start point, which was also the end point, but I didn't know where the rest of the trail went in between.  Jessica followed my progress on Glympse, a GPS program, so that she could call me if Kelsy went too far astray.  She never had to call.  Kelsy worked one leg of the trail about fifty feet off the actual path of travel, parallel to it, like she has done in the past.

At the end point, Komu was hidden, so she had to pinpoint his location in the bushes.  Kelsy really started pulling when she hit the fresh scent, as compared to the day old scent.  She zoomed right in on Komu behind the bushes, and she got her McNuggets reward.

Name:		Track 060
Date:		Jul 12, 2011 7:57 pm
Map: (valid until Jan 8, 2012)		View on Map
Distance:		1.23 miles
Elapsed Time:		43:53.1
Avg Speed:		1.7 mph
Max Speed:		6.0 mph
Avg Pace:		35' 37" per mile
Min Altitude:		155 ft
Max Altitude:		279 ft
Start Time:		2011-07-13T02:57:02Z
Start Location:
	Latitude:	47.303485º N
	Longitude:	122.533445º W
End Location:
	Latitude:	47.303487º N
	Longitude:	122.533379º W

Kelsy's search for Lexi

Lexi doesn't like fireworks.  For a scent article, I used a chunk of the remains of a wooden door she demolished while panicked out of her mind.  Her fur clung to the rough edge of the hole she made in the door.  She didn't escape during that incident, but she did escape later, due to more fireworks, on the 5th.  A neighbor saw her at around 4:45 near the end of Lexi's driveway, and that was the last anyone saw of her for a while.  Lexi's owner came to the Kent Shelter to check for her, and to get some advice and posters.  While at our booth at the shelter, she requested a search dog, and I agreed to bring Kelsy out the next morning, about 40 hours after the escape.  The weather was perfect for a search this morning.

Now for Renton, WA (98059)

Temp: 59F
Feels like: 59F
Fog
Humidity: 94%
Wind: S at 7 mph
Updated: 7/7/11 7:45 AM PDT

Although it didn't register at the weather station, a fine mist covered the region, the kind intermittent windshield wipers were designed for.  It could have been a tad cooler, but otherwise it was perfect weather to make the scent available to the nose of a dog and keep her cool while she works.

I started Kelsy across the street from the point last seen and aimed her at that point, with a hedge as a backstop, so she would have to choose a direction.  She took the scent from the chunk of wood (a first for us) and chose to take us south.  Kelsy took us through a couple of yards and down to the Raging River.  That's it's name, although it wasn't raging at that moment.  Kelsy could easily have crossed, and the owner said Lexi would occaisonally cross the river to play in the woods on the other side.  Because scent doesn't stay put in a river, I had to guess where Lexi might have come out on the other side.  We ended up driving around, over the bridge, to the other side, and starting again in that small neighborhood of 4 houses on a dead end.  Kelsy found the scent to be fresher there than it was at the point last seen.  Kelsy dragged me through nettles and swamps, past devil's club and skunk cabbage, down about half a dozen dead end trails.  Kelsy pointed out bear scat and coyote scat to me.  We found a compost pile and some garbage that Lexi might have snacked on.

I wanted to get down to the river to start at the point across from where we left off on the other side.  We couldn't find a trail, so Kelsy and I just slogged through the nettles and blackberries and dense ferns.  Down at the river, I could see no trail leading back up into the woods.  I got into the river and walked downstream looking for a way out.  I couldn't work Kelsy on a scent trail at that point because there was no flat ground to work on, just the river and a steep bank covered in vegetation.  By the time I finally found a small trail, Lexi's owner shouted down to me that Lexi had been found.  Kelsy and I worked our way out of the canyon and met her back at the house.

Lexi was fine, and she had spent most of the 40 hours of her absence in a woman's car and in her home.  Lexi had been picked up shortly after her escape, with the remains of a tether dangling from her collar, right near her home.  The woman assumed Lexi had run away from home because of the severed tether.  She lived far away, and wasn't able to get back to the neighborhood until today.  She saw the large neon posters provided by MPP, and called the owner.  The finder refused to accept a reward.

The timeline of when Lexi escaped the yard is not exact, and I can't say that Kelsy definitely was on the right trail or definitely was on the wrong trail.  It is certainly possibly that Lexi had made an excursion across the river and come back home before being picked up.  It's also possible that Kelsy was on the wrong trail.  I wish I knew for sure.

When Kelsy met Lexi in her own driveway, she smelled the yellow lab and then looked up at me with a look on her face like, "Hey, that's the dog we were looking for--give me my treat."  So I did give her some cheese and play a little fetch with her.

Things I would do differently next time:  I saw that one house had a camera aimed at their gate.  Kelsy said Lexi walked right in front of that camera, probably more than once.  I should have asked the homeowner to review the tape and tell us if a yellow lab had walked across the camera's view.  This would have helped if Lexi were still missing, and it would help to know if Kelsy was on the right trail.

The other thing I would do differently  would be to have the finder return the dog BEFORE I get up at 5 AM, drive 35 miles, get stung by nettles, wade through a river in tennis shoes, and bushwhack for three hours. Kelsy had a blast, though, so I guess that is the important thing.