4-legged Search and Rescue

Geoff White picks a spot to hide in the woods of Turkey Creek Nature Preserve. Minutes later, the “missing person” can hear the faint jingling of a bell, meaning Bri the Belgian Malinois is on the hunt.

Nose hard at work, Bri quickly covers the ground between her and White. She pauses in front of him for a moment, confirming her find, then races back to her handler, Emily Smythies, to lead the search team back to her target.

In this game of hide and seek, everyone wants the searcher to win.

White, Smythies and Bri are all part of the Red Mountain Search Dog Association, a three-year-old volunteer organization with the goal of becoming the go-to search and rescue team for Central Alabama.

newsletter 7 was founded in 2014 by Mountain Brook resident Kenny Powell, Arthur Powell and Stephen Burton. They specialize in air scent detection for finding missing persons. Kenny Powell and her canine Sadie were the organization’s first pair to be certified as ready to participate in search and rescue missions. Two more dog and handler pairs are working toward their final certification. 

“It’s been slow because we had to learn everything. We knew nothing coming in,” Powell said. “It takes so many people to make it all work.”

Powell got her start in search and rescue after she brought home a Belgian Malinois when her kids left for college. She quickly realized the high-energy breed is at its best with a task to complete.

“I discovered that they had to have a job. They’re incredible animals, but they’re very driven, very focused and they need a job,” she said, adding that Sadie’s personality will change if she goes too many days without “working.”

When Sadie is on the hunt for a scent, Powell is behind her with a ribbon around her wrist to track wind direction. Using vocal commands, Powell directs her dog to areas where she’s most likely to catch a person’s scent on the breeze. 

She also keeps an eye on Sadie’s body language to read the signs of when she’s found or lost the trail, or when she’s distracted by woodland wildlife.

“I love watching the dogs work,” Powell said.

In addition to dog handling, the two-legged members of canine search and rescue teams also have to learn about first aid, survival skills, maps, orienteering and reading the wind and weather conditions. Since they communicate via radio, the team members must also have amateur radio operating licenses.

It takes a multi-person team for a search dog to function at its best.

“The handler needs to be able to focus on their dog and what the dog is doing. The support crew is not only handling the navigation and communicating with base, letting them know what’s going on, but we’re watching for things like tracking, evidence,” said RMSDA member Janie Shelswell-White. “And we’re also watching their dog. After training with them for so long, you get to know the different dogs and the different kind of style of what they do and how they’re communicating. So you’re able to help the handler read their dog.”

The RMSDA trains together at least once per week, with each dog handler working individually with their canine every day. Their team includes a German shepherd, several Belgian Malinois, a poodle and a husky. 

White said a good search and rescue dog has to have the right temperament to stay focused on a task, work off-leash, respond to vocal commands and enjoy what is, to them, a game of hide-and-seek.

“We do this all year round. It’s every weekend, rain or shine. People don’t just get lost when it’s sunny and 80 degrees,” White said.

The dogs learn through drills where different team members or friends play the “missing person” and hide in the woods. After being given that person’s scent to track, the dogs are let loose, ranging far from their handlers as they search for traces of where the missing person has been.

They wear GPS collars as well as a bell, White said, so the handlers can track them and an actual missing person can hear the dog approach. 

After the dog successfully finds the person and leads the search team to them, it’s time for a “big party,” White said. Toys, treats and vigorous praise from the entire team reinforce that they’ve been very good dogs.

“This is her job. She actually loves it,” Powell said of Sadie. “To her it’s hide and seek, and she just thinks it’s great fun.”

Since receiving their final certifications from the National Association of Search and Rescue (NASAR) in early 2017, Powell and Sadie have not yet been called out to an official search mission. But she wants to show local law enforcement what her team can do, especially as the RMSDA members keep working on their certifications and skills training. 

While police often have narcotics detection or apprehension canine teams, those skillsets are different from search and rescue detection.

When a person goes missing, the RMSDA wants to be the team that first responders can turn to, without having to wait for a team from elsewhere in the state or region.

“I think that if [my dog] and I train for the next 10 years and only help one person, that it’ll be worth it,” said RMSDA member John Bassler.

The RMSDA welcomes potential new team members, whether or not they have a dog, as well as anyone interested in seeing how they work.

Visit rmsda.org to learn more.