“Search,” says Joyce Tattersall. Echo gracefully stretches and leaps at a toy lodged in the fork of a tree, but it’s beyond her teeth; nevertheless, she is praised mightily.
“Speak.” Echo barks and scrambles up the tree repeatedly until Tattersall commands, “Down.” Echo crouches and looks lovingly up at her mom.
“Echo is my pet first and a working dog second,” Tattersall says of her six year-old Belgian Malinois beauty. They are vital volunteers within Sunshine Coast Search and Rescue (SAR). Tattersall’s radio ID is Sunshine 55. Echo is SAR K9.
“A dog can cover an area in the same amount of time that it would take 10 to 15 people to cover,” she says.
BC SAR has 15 dogs and their handlers.
Echo came to Tattersall at 12 weeks old. Her training began immediately with picking up clothes and towels. Training is fun and positive for the dog with frequent rewards of play, toys and food.
There are two ways that dogs are trained – tracking when the dog’s head is down smelling the ground, or air scenting when the dog keeps its head up sniffing the air.
Dogs can pick up human scent in the air for days, and for as much as two years if it’s an item like a rubber boot or clothing. Although, they may not always indicate they’ve found a scent on an older item.
“Imagine a smoke bomb spreading orange smoke, that’s how scent is spread,” Tattersall explains.
Echo is validated by the police yearly as a search dog, with first validation done at two years old. Since then they’ve been on so many call outs, Tattersall can’t recall how many.
A typical call-out on the Sunshine Coast is for subjects with dementia, who have wandered away from home.
On one call, the family searched for many hours before calling Sunshine Coast SAR. Echo, Tattersall, and Stephen Smith (Sunshine 97) assisted other members in finding the person almost immediately not far from home.
If you’ve watched episodes of Search and Rescue: North Shore on Knowledge Network, then you’ll have seen searches they’ve participated in – for example, the Lynn Headwaters search for a hiker. Recently, they were part of the massive Pemberton search. They were helicoptered in to search for mushroom pickers.
There are some myths about search dogs:
• Dogs can’t smell in the rain. False. Search dogs can air scent in the rain.
• Dogs can’t pick up scent in cold or snow. False. It makes it more difficult, but they can, or we wouldn’t have avalanche dogs.
• Dogs can’t search at night. False. Dogs have good night vision, but they mostly rely on their superior sense of smell.
• When not on duty, SAR dogs are kept caged. False. Echo is a pet in the house when she isn’t training or on call outs.
Tattersall has adorable toy versions of Echo. Profits from the sale of Echos will be donated to SAR. To order, contact Tattersall at [email protected].
Cathalynn Cindy Labonté-Smith is an author and freelance journalist who lives in Gibsons.
