New Search and Rescue K-9 Team Reports for Duty
By. Brian Heskin MHA Times Editor
The MHA Emergency Operations Center (EOC) has expanded their Search and Rescue Division in a significant way. Last month, the EOC announced the addition of Dierks, a 16-month-old male AKC Bloodhound that’s certified in Search and Rescue (SAR) Trailing. His handler, EOC Director Emily Sitting Bear has been training with Dierks for the last seven months and the two of them recently certified as a K-9 team in Boulder, CO. Although eight other established K-9 teams operate in Fort Berthold, Sitting Bear and Dierks are the first K-9 team certified in trailing within the entire reservation.
Dierks is an incredible new asset for MHA Nation. His trailing capabilities involve the ability to identify and follow a specific person’s scent, no matter where it is. This capability is crucial in search and rescue operations, allowing Dierks to navigate through heavily contaminated scent areas to locate missing individuals.
Researchers estimate that a bloodhound’s sense of smell is at least 1,000 times stronger than a human’s.
When a bloodhound sniffs a scent article, such as a piece of clothing, air rushes through the dog’s nasal cavity and creates an “odor image” in the dog’s brain.
The odor image is created from a variety of smells that a human cannot detect, including sweat, breath and skin. A bloodhound’s sense of smell is so powerful that it can use the odor image to pick out the exact scent trail it needs. Once the bloodhound finds a scent trail matching the odor image, it can follow that specific smell despite all the other odors in the environment. Bloodhounds have been known to follow a scent trail for more than 100 miles.
Dierks was donated to MHA Nation by Anjie Julseth-Crosby, a Search and Rescue Dogs of the United States (SARDUS) K-9 handler, who has been Dierks’ trainer for the last 12 months after rescuing him when he was a puppy. Julseth-Crosby met Sitting Bear at a training event that the EOC hosted at the 4 Bears Casino exactly one year ago.
Last year, when Julseth- Crosby approached Sitting Bear after the training event and proposed donating a bloodhound to MHA
Nation, Sitting Bear didn’t really think she was serious.
“I just kind of thought she was caught up in the emotions and that she wasn’t really that serious,” Sitting Bear said. “Then she called me two weeks later and asked me when I was going to come down and start training.”
The amount of time invested in training Dierks has been immense and will always be an ongoing practice. Sitting Bear explained the process and described how triggering the dog’s reward system is key to successful training.
“The way they work is that you have to make it a game for them,” Sitting Bear said. “Everything has to be fun all the time. When we train we really love-them-up and lather on the praise. You really make it a celebration every time they do what you want them to do and that’s what they work for. They also work for other rewards. Some dogs are treat motivated and some dogs are toy motivated.”
The end result needs to be something the dog truly craves, because conditions will sometimes be less than ideal when their services are needed most.
“What you’re asking them to do is work through the heat, the cold– and all these other kinds of distractions, like other dogs, people and vehicles,” Sitting Bear said.
Performing at a high level within different environments and conditions was crucial in Dierks’ training as well. In the last year, Dierks has trained in Missouri, Colorado, Wyoming, South Dakota, Texas and Louisiana. By implementing his training in other states, Dierks has been able to gather valuable experience trailing in busy cities, mountains, forests, lakesides, swamps, crowded malls and stores. Another benefit of training in other locations was the diversity in weather conditions that each area produced. From hot to cold, windy to calm and wet to dry; Dierks has experienced it all.
Dierks isn’t the only one who has received this specialized training. As Dierks’ handler, Sitting Bear has also gone through the same rigorous training process and said that she was humbled on a number of occasions.
This process began only a couple of weeks after Julseth-Crosby and Sitting Bear met at the 4 Bears Casino. Every few months, for a week or two at a time, Sitting Bear would travel to the nearest SARDUS Chapter in Colorado where Julseth-Crosby was affiliated with to train with Dierks.
Dierks and Sitting Bear’s best simulated trailing exercise occurred there during their last training session shortly before they were officially certified in wilderness and suburban trailing back in April. Dierks and Sitting Bear successfully found their subject over a mile away using a trail that was 24 hours old and went through a busy urban area filled with distractions like people and heavy traffic.
“They give you a scenario at the beginning,” Sitting Bear said. “It’s not just to test the dog, but the handler too. They will also evaluate me and how I intake the information, how I process it and what I do with it. It’s really a test for both me and him, and I’m also supposed to show my knowledge level as far as search techniques, methodology and how well I understand my dog,” Sitting Bear said.
This particular scenario involved an elderly woman who suffered from memory issues and had wandered off leaving a trail that was already 24 hours old. Thinking this scenario was intended for more advanced K-9 teams, Sitting Bear initially felt hesitant. The instructors were confident the two could pull it off; and in the end, they were correct.
“We tried it and we did it,” Sitting Bear said. “I still look at him sometimes and I’m just in awe of what he can do. He’s just a really great dog.” Sitting Bear said she and Dierks currently train around 18-20 hours a month. During these training sessions, they try to use varying trail ages, distances, subjects, weather and times of day.
“We’re just trying to change-up all the different factors,” Sitting Bear said. “I don’t want things to be easy for us, because when people go missing it’s never easy and the conditions are never ideal. We even look for when the days are completely still and where it’s just blowing. We’re just trying to mix it up as much as possible.”
Sitting Bear said her department is always looking for more volunteers and that it’s especially important for Dierks to train with different search subjects. Since Dierks arrived in May, Sitting Bear said they have already gone through most of the EOC and TAT Fire Management staff. Those interested in volunteering as lost subjects to help continue Dierks’ growth can contact the EOC at 701- 421-2954.
It’s not just the people of MHA Nation that Sitting Bear and Dierks can serve. The new K-9 team is also available to other agencies and communities outside of Fort Berthold after the proper protocols are followed. Once Sitting Bear receives an official request, she would assess the situation and determine if she and Dierks would be of help or a detriment. If she deems they can be of service, Sitting Bear would seek authorization from her superiors; and once granted, would be able to go off the reservation to serve.
“If someone ever does go missing around here, I hope that we can be utilized for that purpose and help as much as possible,” Sitting Bear said.