Animals Public Safety

Sheriff’s Search and Rescue K-9 Teams Sharpen Skills

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Wishbone, a Sheriff’s Search and Rescue K-9 beagle, puts his snout to the dirt and takes off down the path with his handler in tow. Just prior to heading out, the dog is given a big whiff of an article of clothing that belongs to a volunteer who is hiding further up the trail. Wishbone’s handler lets out his leash as he goes ahead of her and watches for changes in his behavior that may indicate he is onto something.

The dog passes his target but eventually doubles back and finds the man, who is hiding just off-trail. He runs to him as if to confirm the scent, then runs back to his handler who praises him and rewards him with a head rub.

Wishbone is one of 15 dogs in the San Diego County Search and Rescue K-9 Unit. He took part in a mutual aid training exercise with search and rescue K-9 units from the Riverside Sheriff’s Department and Murrieta Police Department Wednesday in Santee’s Mast Park. A law enforcement team from Iowa traveled to San Diego to observe the program so they can set up a similar K-9 unit modeled on the San Diego Sheriff’s program.

“Search and rescue is very serious when you’re out looking for missing people,” Search and Rescue Sgt. Don Parker said. “They have to find and save someone’s life.”

Many of the cases these dogs are assigned to involve missing people in wilderness and urban settings, but they also assist on criminal cases, Parker said. The teams are available 24 hours a day to respond to local, state and federal agency requests.

All K-9s undergo a five-month academy and are certified. Currently, there are three additional dogs in training to join the program. The dogs train in one or more of three specialties: trailing searches in which dogs use a scent article to look for someone; area searches in which the dogs look for a human in a specific area without a scent article; and human remains detection searches, said Parker.

The dog handlers are all volunteers who take time away from work or their home life to train at least twice a week with their dogs, said K-9 Unit Team Leader Pam Medhurst. The volunteers and their dogs, put in eight or more hours every week, she said.

Medhurst, who is Wishbone’s handler, has four other beagles in the program.

“I’ve had really good success with beagles,” Medhurst said. “They’re basically a little hound.”

Search and Rescue Unit volunteer Lenore Ceithaml, who has been a member of the team for 11 years, brought her golden retriever to the training. She said almost all breeds can do the work as long as they have a good play drive, because to them the searching is a game and they love it.

Ceithaml said it is a big commitment to take part in the program but it is a rewarding one. It allows her and her dog “to make a difference.” She took part in the search for Chelsea King.

“We were there almost every day. We searched the whole park,” Ceithaml said.

Ultimately, divers found the slain girl in a shallow grave. Ceithaml said the water around the body made it difficult for the dogs to pinpoint the location because water carries a scent and it wafts in the wind. Yet the search dogs confirmed to deputies that they were searching the right part of the large park.

In the mutual aid training Wednesday, nine dogs and 20 volunteers took part in various scenarios designed to mimic real search situations. To learn more about Search and Rescue visit http://www.sdsheriff.net/sar/units.html.

Yvette Urrea Moe is a communications specialist with the County of San Diego Communications Office. Contact