Practice Search for Lucy

Kelsy and I hadn't seen Lucy in a while, so I arranged a practice search so Kelsy could see her old friend.  Lucy walked the trail a day earlier, and it was about three miles long.  I knew the trail in advance, so I could monitor Kelsy's behavior as she trailed and watch for distractions.  Kelsy followed the trail almost exactly except for the 1 mile stretch of 21st Ave SW.  I knew Lucy had stayed on the east side for the whole mile, but Kelsy wanted to cross to the west side.  I gave her a little resistance before we crossed, to make sure she really wanted to cross, but Kelsy insisted.  Kelsy followed the trail for three blocks on the west side, then one block on the east side, six blocks west, and three blocks east.  About half the time, Kelsy follows a known scent trail on the opposite side of the road.  She has always done this, as far as I can tell, and I'm not sure why.  I think it may have something to do with the way a road cools at night and draws air into it.  Or maybe it was the wind pushing the scent over.  I wish I could see scent particles so I would know how they distribute over time. 

Kelsy followed most of the trail exactly, other than being on the opposite side of the road.  There was just one point in an apartment complex where she got turned around, and I helped her back on track for half a block.  At the end, Kelsy could not pinpoint Lucy's house.  No doubt, there were many Lucy trails crisscrossing and running in and out.  She knew Lucy was near, but she couldn't pinpoint the house.  I did lead her to the gate, and once she was in the back yard, she knew she was in Lucy's world.  She had a good time playing with Lucy and barking at her.  Kelsy played a little fetch with Lucy's ball, and she received snausages for her treat.  After a frustrating week of trailing Cali, Kelsy seemed relieved to work the trail of a findable dog, especially a friend she hadn't seen in a while. 

Temp: 45F
Feels like: 40F
Partly Cloudy
Humidity: 61%
Wind: SSW at 8 mph
Updated: 4/17/11 10:45 AM PDT

Name:		Track 045
Date:		Apr 17, 2011 11:07 am
Map: (valid until Oct 14, 2011)		View on Map
Distance:		3.14 miles
Elapsed Time:		1:16:54
Avg Speed:		2.4 mph
Max Speed:		8.1 mph
Avg Pace:		24' 31" per mile
Min Altitude:		222 ft
Max Altitude:		368 ft
Start Time:		2011-04-17T18:07:35Z
Start Location:
	Latitude:	47.309758º N
	Longitude:	122.352729º W
End Location:
	Latitude:	47.308695º N
	Longitude:	122.351938º W

The Search for Cali

Cali is a seventeen pound Labradoodle that runs like the wind.  Over a seven day period, she ran back and forth over a territory five miles long and three miles wide.  We received reports of her at one end in the evening and the other end the next morning.  All of the fliers posted on every street in that area advised people not to chase her, but of course the people would chase her first and then read the details in the flier later.  Kelsy tracked Cali five times on four different days, but we couldn’t follow the scent trail as fast as Cali could run.  On the last trailing attempt, I even saw Cali in a yard, and started Kelsy on the scent trail ten minutes later.  As we followed, we kept getting reports that Cali was seen farther and farther away from us, so we gave up that strategy.  Instead, on the day that Cali’s family flew home from out of the country, they spread out in the neighborhood where Cali was last seen, hoping for a new reported sighting.  Within an hour, Cali’s mom spotted her in a yard.  

I pulled up just in time to see Cali’s owner perform a textbook example of our recommended calming signals.  From fifty feet away, she got Cali’s attention, and then she lay flat on the ground, not looking at Cali.  She set Cali’s favorite toy on the ground, along with a bag of Cali’s favorite treats.  Then she waited.  I’m sure Cali’s owner wanted to run to her when she spotted her in that yard.  As she laid there, for what probably seemed like an eternity, she may have wondered if my advice to lie on the pavement was the best way to catch a dog.  Cali sat and watched for a couple of minutes.  Then she cautiously started to move closer.  At about twenty-five feet away, she must have caught the scent of her owner, because I could see that her tail started to wag.  She increased her pace to a trot, and then she galloped the rest of the way, wagging her tail furiously.  She pounced on her owner and rolled on top of her joyously.  It was the perfect ending to Cali’s week of adventure.    Again I got to witness Kat Albrecht’s techniques work like a charm.  Reunions like this keep me going.  Kelsy, on the other hand, seemed disappointed that she wasn’t the one to catch the ‘Doodle.  Next time, Kelsy.

Regarding Kelsy's performance on these searches, it is difficult to assess her accuracy.  Most likely, Cali was in all of these areas at multiple times, based on the sightings and her behavior.  On the first day of scent trailing, Kelsy seemed like she was really close, at the north end of the trail in Newport Shores, at Vashon Key.  We may have even gone right past Cali in the bushes somewhere nearby.  Right at the corner of Cascade Key and Vashon Key, the trail lost its directional quality, and Cali had gone every which way.  On the last search, the day Cali was caught, Kelsy seemed to be losing her enthusiasm for Cali.   Cali had certainly been up and down that street multiple times on multiple days, making it difficult to distinguish one trail from the other.  Even if we were on the right track 100% of the time (not on an older trail) Kelsy could never have caught up to Cali while having to drag me along, unless Cali took a break, which was what we were hoping for.  The fastest we have been able to track is about two miles an hour.  Note that on the recorded tracks below, the average speed on three of them is 1.7 miles an hour.  (The one that reads 3.7 MPH includes a car ride back to the start.)   Based on the reports we received, Cali was traveling at least two to five miles an hour on average, sometimes much faster when people were trying to catch her. 

Name:		Track 040
Date:		Apr 7, 2011 10:44 am
Map: (valid until Oct 4, 2011)		View on Map
Distance:		1.87 miles
Elapsed Time:		1:06:49
Avg Speed:		1.7 mph
Max Speed:		23.8 mph
Avg Pace:		35' 40" per mile
Min Altitude:		81 ft
Max Altitude:		444 ft
Start Time:		2011-04-07T17:44:24Z
Start Location:
	Latitude:	47.550580º N
	Longitude:	122.187785º W
End Location:
	Latitude:	47.549398º N
	Longitude:	122.189398º W

Temp: 41F
Feels like: 41F
Cloudy
Humidity: 82%
Wind: NE at 1 mph
Updated: 4/7/11 9:45 AM PDT

Name:		Track 041
Date:		Apr 7, 2011 12:28 pm
Map: (valid until Oct 4, 2011)		View on Map
Distance:		4.02 miles
Elapsed Time:		1:05:03
Avg Speed:		3.7 mph
Max Speed:		29.2 mph
Avg Pace:		16' 12" per mile
Min Altitude:		6 ft
Max Altitude:		361 ft
Start Time:		2011-04-07T19:28:06Z
Start Location:
	Latitude:	47.553889º N
	Longitude:	122.179037º W
End Location:
	Latitude:	47.552701º N
	Longitude:	122.179048º W

Temp: 45F
Feels like: 42F
Mostly Cloudy
Humidity: 76%
Wind: NNE at 6 mph
Updated: 4/7/11 3:25 PM PDT

Name:		Track 042
Date:		Apr 8, 2011 1:20 pm
Map: (valid until Oct 5, 2011)		View on Map
Distance:		3.62 miles
Elapsed Time:		2:05:16
Avg Speed:		1.7 mph
Max Speed:		38.5 mph
Avg Pace:		34' 34" per mile
Min Altitude:		0 ft
Max Altitude:		375 ft
Start Time:		2011-04-08T20:20:43Z
Start Location:
	Latitude:	47.518705º N
	Longitude:	122.156697º W
End Location:
	Latitude:	47.516748º N
	Longitude:	122.143761º W

Temp: 52F
Feels like: 52F
Cloudy
Humidity: 56%
Wind: WSW at 10 mph
Updated: 4/9/11 5:45 PM PDT

Name:		Track 044
Date:		Apr 9, 2011 6:11 pm
Map: (valid until Oct 6, 2011)		View on Map
Distance:		2.17 miles
Elapsed Time:		1:15:17
Avg Speed:		1.7 mph
Max Speed:		6.9 mph
Avg Pace:		34' 39" per mile
Min Altitude:		224 ft
Max Altitude:		345 ft
Start Time:		2011-04-10T01:11:05Z
Start Location:
	Latitude:	47.557516º N
	Longitude:	122.184864º W
End Location:
	Latitude:	47.550231º N
	Longitude:	122.183291º W

Karma's search for Oscar

Kelsy wasn't too happy when I assembled the search gear and then left her at home.  Kelsy follows scent trails, so she is not the best sort of dog to find a cat.  In today's search for Oscar, I borrowed Karma, who has been trained to find pools of cat scent.  Karma does not follow the scent trail of a specific animal, but she just finds any and all cats.  If it's not the cat we are looking for, she just looks for another one. 

Karma found two cats today, neither of which were Oscar.  Oscar is an orange cat with short hair, and Karma found an orange cat with long hair.  Karma cleared about 16 yards in three hours.  We didn't get permission to search every yard we would have liked, but we did hit the most likely places Oscar could be hiding.  During the search, we ran into many people who had seen an orange cat.  Some weren't sure whether it was the long-haired orange cat, but other people were sure it was a short-haired orange cat. 

Even though we weren't able to find Oscar during the search, I feel confident he is still in the area.  The neighborhood has many outdoor cats, and I think that their territories have shifted somehow, and Oscar has been bumped out of his normal range.  Oscar has been missing for five days.  His owner is putting up large neon posters in the area.  He has a good chance of making it back home. 

Karma slept very well on the ride home, and she was happy to see her owner after a day's adventure.  Kelsy scolded me for leaving her at home, but she soon forgave me.

Temp: 47F
Feels like: 42F
Mostly Cloudy
Humidity: 79%
Wind: ESE at 9 mph
Updated: 3/26/11 6:25 PM PDT

Name:		Track 038
Date:		Mar 26, 2011 10:43 am
Map: (valid until Sep 22, 2011)		View on Map
Distance:		1.60 miles
Elapsed Time:		2:42:26
Avg Speed:		0.6 mph
Max Speed:		11.6 mph
Avg Pace:		-- per mile
Min Altitude:		381 ft
Max Altitude:		442 ft
Start Time:		2011-03-26T17:43:48Z
Start Location:
	Latitude:	47.460096º N
	Longitude:	122.165573º W
End Location:
	Latitude:	47.460829º N
	Longitude:	122.167147º W

Kelsy

Last night, I woke up before dawn, and I couldn't fall back to sleep right away.  Kelsy sensed that I had turned over, and she moved over next to me, seeking warmth because the air was cool.  She laid her spine against my chest and her head on my arm.  My breath moved the short fur on the back of her neck and I could smell the slightly sweet, distinct scent of her ears.  I rubbed her chest, and she fell back asleep.  As she started to dream, her feet twitched, and I felt like I was right there with her in the dream.  I could almost tell which way she was moving in her dream by the relative amplitude of her rippling muscles.  Her neck would tremble as she turned one way or the other in her dream world.  I hoped that she felt my presence and that I was with her in her dream, keeping her safe.  Eventually, her dream subsided, and we both fell into a calm sleep.

Quite often, people ask me why I do this, volunteering my time to chase down a strange dog.  I do it because I love Kelsy.  I love all three of my dogs, Porter, Tess, and Kelsy, but with Kelsy I took advantage of the opportunity to give her a meaningful and fulfilling job, using her skills to help other animals.  It is just a game to her, most of the time, but other times I think she senses what is at stake.  The times she found the remains of deceased dogs, she behaved solemnly, as though she knew the full story of predator and prey, and how the scene unfolded on that spot.  She takes her job seriously, and she is frustrated when we can't continue the search because of property lines or because the dog was picked up.  In doing this work, Kelsy is leading a fuller life.  She still enjoys sleeping on a couch just as much as the other dogs, but I wonder if Porter and Tess are dreaming of cupcakes while Kelsy is dreaming of the search.  I wish I would have known about Missing Pet Partnership years ago, so I could have given all three dogs the chance to do this work.

When Kelsy and I work together, we are a team, a unit.  I am watching everything she does, paying attention to the slightest change in the angle of her head or the tension on the leash.  When a fresh scent hits her nose, the impulse travels right up the leash as if we are wired together.  As we search, we become one person.  Through repetition, through trial and error, we are both learning how to work a scent trail and how to decipher the tricky double-backs and overlapping loops.  I am learning how to communicate with her and how not to communicate with her to stay in the groove and work an ephemeral, invisible trail.  I am allowed to enter her world, to see the world through her eyes, and through her magnificent nose.

It's hard to imagine that anyone loves anyone as much as I love Kelsy, but it is possible.  I can imagine how crushing it would be if Kelsy were suddenly missing.  My life would come to a stop.  When people are missing their dogs, if they love them half as much as I love Kelsy, then I know how hard it is, and how desperately they want this member of their family back home, safe.  Because they've never met someone like me, someone who works with a scent dog to track lost dogs, people often ask me why I do it.  I do it because I love Kelsy, and because I understand that you might love your dog almost as much.  I do it because, if Kelsy were suddenly missing, I would want someone to help me.  If Kelsy were lost, I would give anything to find her.

The Search for Mac

Mac is the first wallaby that Kelsy has tried to track.  I didn't know what to expect, and I advised Mac's owner that Kelsy had never tried this before.  Kelsy is a dog-detection dog, not a cat-detection dog, and so she is trained to follow the scent trail of a specific animal.  Her style of scent trailing usually doesn't work for cats because cats generally don't run for miles on a distinct trail.  They move a little, create a pool of scent, move a little more, and create another new pool of scent.  If Mac behaved like a dog, Kelsy might be able to track him, but if he was more like a cat, then she would probably be unsuccessful.

The trail Kelsy followed is on the map at the link below.  It starts out looping around, and then Kelsy hits on a distinct trail heading south toward home.  We hit that trail by accident after I had already called off the search.  We were just walking back to the truck when Kelsy started to pull me across the main street.  She got into her groove, for the first time that day, and she followed along the guardrail and down onto the walking trail between the main road and the lake.  She stuck to this linear scent trail like glue, ignoring dogs that she passed.  Finally, the trail led to a series of waterfront lots, which are long and narrow.  The first one had been recently mowed, obliterating the scent trail, and I didn't want to have to stop every sixty feet and request permission from each new property owner.  I advised Mac's owner to concentrate her search in that area.

If Kelsy was correct in the trail she followed, the answer to whether a wallaby acts more like a cat or a dog seems to be, a little of both.  I will be very interested to learn where they eventually find Mac.  Kelsy seemed disappointed that I stopped her in mid-trail.  Later in the evening, when I said the word "wallaby," she howled at me.

Temp: 49F
Feels like: 48F
Mostly Cloudy
Humidity: 60%
Wind: SSE at 4 mph
Updated: 3/20/11 2:45 PM PDT

Update:  Mac was eventually found, deceased, not far from where Kelsy's trail had ended.  Mac had entered the water, for some unknown reason, and seems to have drowned.  Kelsy could not follow the scent trail into the lake.  Mac was found 700 feet east of where Kelsy followed a trail to the water's edge, possibly pushed there by currents.

Name:		Track 037
Date:		Mar 20, 2011 1:29 pm
Map: (valid until Sep 16, 2011)		View on Map
Distance:		1.67 miles
Elapsed Time:		1:14:43
Avg Speed:		1.3 mph
Max Speed:		4.7 mph
Avg Pace:		44' 37" per mile
Min Altitude:		45 ft
Max Altitude:		331 ft
Start Time:		2011-03-20T20:29:56Z
Start Location:
	Latitude:	47.579448º N
	Longitude:	122.073612º W
End Location:
	Latitude:	47.569705º N
	Longitude:	122.066391º W

Random notes

No search today.

I used to keep a journal of all my dogs' inconsequential activities. I realized I can still do that here, and people can skip over the boring stuff.

Kelsy acted strange, today, and it took me a minute to figure it out. We had gone to the dog park and she had run around like a maniac, chasing her ball and wallowing in her swamp. Then we went to the rain garden at the elementary school, and Kelsy watched me pull weeds. After about an hour, I look over and noticed she had an odd expression. I didn't know what to make of it. I wondered if Mount Rainier was about to blow. When I got closer, I noticed she was trembling. I looked around for what might be causing her to tremble, but nothing was unusual. Finally, it occurred to me that she was cold! I had never seen her cold before. Since I first got Porter eleven years ago, I have never seen any of my three dogs cold. It never occurred to me that they could get cold. They are always rolling in the snow and plunging into half-frozen lakes. Just last week, Kelsy went swimming in Puget Sound during a storm. I guess lying on the concrete in the rain, not moving, finally quenched her furnace. I felt bad for making her cold, but it had never dawned on me that she could be cold. We went and hopped in the truck, and she was instantly fine.

The Search for Rocky

Rocky dashed away from home yesterday around 4 PM.  He was last seen running into the park as people were trying to catch him.  Denise requested the help of MPP, and I sent her the handbook of 15 tools and techniques for finding your lost dog.  After reading through the material, she was interested in a search dog.  I explained that this search might have a lower chance of success than usual because they took Rocky for walks in the area on a regular basis, so old scent trails might be hard to distinguish from new scent trails.  Knowing the limitations and the drawbacks, Denise opted to have the search.  Kelsy and I arrived around 4:40.  We got started right away to make the most of the daylight.

For a scent article, we used a bed that Rocky liked to lay on for many hours each day.  Kelsy spent longer than usual sniffing the scent article, and then she started on the trail.  Fairly quickly, she found some scat that Denise said was consistent with Rocky.  Kelsy followed the scent trail through the park, a wooded ravine with fairly good visibility and sight lines.  On the downhill side of the park, Kelsy started using her eyes instead of her nose, a sign to me that she was either losing the scent trail, or it had gotten weaker.  Then she started using her nose again and took us to the end of the block.  At the intersection below the park, Cullbertson and Sherwood, Kelsy turned and gave me the negative signal, indicating she had run out of scent.  When turning back, she stopped at a gate to a yard.  Instead of pursuing this, I took her back to the center of the park, where the scent was hottest, and started her again.  She led me on several branch trails, and into a section of ferns and huckleberries.  Each time she took a particular interest in a spot, I checked to see what she was smelling, and I never saw signs of predation.  Kelsy ended up leading me back to the beginning, to the parking lot and the point where Rocky was last seen.  As we were trying to find a trail out of the main overlapping trail, Denise got a call that Rocky had been found about a mile south of where we were looking.  Denise went to that house, and it turned out to actually be Rocky.  He had curled up on someone's porch, and they found him when they came home.  I don't know for sure, but I think the finders saw the neon posters for Rocky as they were driving through the neighborhood.  Or they might have called the number on the tag.  Anyway, Rocky was home, safe.

After we determined that Rocky was healthy, and offered him some food, Denise agreed to let Kelsy find Rocky as a reward for her efforts.  They walked Rocky from their front door to the end of the block and then right half a block more.  Kelsy sniffed the scent article again, and then led me charging toward Rocky on this fresh scent trail.  Rocky was a bit nervous at this big black dog rushing toward him, but he wasn't too scared.  Kelsy took a good sniff of him to make sure he was the right dog, and then she turned to me to ask for her treat.  I tossed her several good treats that Denise had given me, and then I threw her ball for her a few times in the street.  Kelsy slept soundly in the truck on the ride home.


Temp: 47F
Feels like: 44F
Cloudy
Humidity: 77%
Wind: S at 8 mph
Updated: 3/12/11 5:45 PM PST

I forgot to switch on the GPS, so I didn't record half the trail.  We actually started right where the map indicates the end, going in a loop, as Rocky probably did more than once in the middle of the night.

Name:		Track 036
Date:		Mar 12, 2011 5:16 pm
Map: (valid until Sep 8, 2011)		View on Map
Distance:		1.14 miles
Elapsed Time:		33:37.0
Avg Speed:		2.0 mph
Max Speed:		16.4 mph
Avg Pace:		29' 27" per mile
Min Altitude:		162 ft
Max Altitude:		460 ft
Start Time:		2011-03-13T01:16:14Z
Start Location:
	Latitude:	47.733691º N
	Longitude:	122.367748º W
End Location:
	Latitude:	47.734147º N
	Longitude:	122.361454º W