Great Lakes SAR K9

Today was the second day that I had met up with Great Lakes SAR K9 this time Julie, had arranged for some other handlers to meet up at a local training venue.

 

 

 

First the venue, Kohler-Andrae State Park, about 2 miles of sandy beach 8 or so miles south of Sheboygan, a great venue due to the multiple surfaces it offers, today not only the sun, but it was as still as anything.

There of the team were able to be there:

First up was Mike Clutter , Mike is a conservation  Warden for Dept of Natural Resources.

Mikes dog, Navi is a bloodhound, a lot smaller and lighter than many European counterparts, Navi  is a man tracking scent discriminatory dog.

Basically, he will track from a scent item (in this case a pair of jeans to source. This is the traditional view that there is of bloodhound deployments, the dog sniff the item and finds the offender.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mike is unique on the team in as much as he uses the dog at his normal place of work to track poachers and other offenders in that arena, when working he is usually armed so the non-protection option with the friendly bloodhound is not an issue.

Navi worked well on a 20 Min plus trail from a pair of jeans to Grace, the track layer and her son.

Not a long track but enough to see the dog work at a good rate.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We moved on to the HRD( Cadaver) aspects of their work and the multi-disciplinary ways that dogs here are deployed.

The methods of teach for HRD are to use as near HRD components as possible.

 

 

This is where thing’s may get a bit squeamish.

The training items used are shown here, the one looking like a bird feeder contains human hair and teeth.

The tubing (yes its plumbers pipework) again contains human teeth.

 

The pots contain placenta, and I will go no further with that

 

 

The polystyrene cup block of concrete is called a blood block, yes that’s right cement and blood mixed. These have a hook in them to allow them to be raised above the ground BUT also to be floated and water deployed for training in water scenarios.

 

 

I saw 2 demos Grace and Scout a Belgium malinois and Julie and her mally .

Both were successful in conditions not ideal, for scent related work but a good demo and finds

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Conversations with the team show that SAR team commitment is universal the enthusiasm that they have is the same as we are lucky enough to have in KSAR and the dog team there.

However the type of deployments that these guys are sent on or requested for is far beyond what NSARDA would allow and to be fair what we as police would ask for .

For example as well as open search , trailing one of Julie’s dogs also will search and detect “Live plant” which I thought was quaint but of little value, transpires that live plant are as we have now open area cannabis grows.

On the HRD front, being deployed by the police to murder scenes, or as I was told a 20 year old body recovery, would we ask SAR to do this?.

One of the great drives here is one which I think is going to happen to UK policing…, money.

This was a great day meeting some truly inspirational individuals. I wish them all the best and will keep in contact.