Polk County News
Polk County Itemizer-Observer • November 9, 2016 5A
A nose for search and rescue
By Jolene Guzman
The Itemizer-Observer
DALLAS — The human
half of canine search pairs
may be called “handlers,”
but really, the job is all about
teamwork.
Eric Ronemus and his
dog, Abby, provided a good
example on Oct. 29 during a
“human remains detection,”
evaluation, part of a three-
day clinic held in Dallas by
Search and Rescue Dogs of
the United States.
“If I stay out of her way,
she does great,” he said.
Ronemus and Abby spent
part of late morning and af-
ternoon at the Polk County
shops in Dallas searching for
samples of human remains
with some containing as lit-
tle as one ounce.
Abby, with encourage-
ment and guidance from
Ronemus, performed well.
She only missed one portion
of the test and wasn’t fooled
when evaluators had her
search an area with nothing
to find.
Before the test began,
Ronemus was given the gen-
eral area where remains
were hidden — or not, as the
case may be.
He and Abby were left to
do the rest.
Abby, as one evaluator
said, often worked in “text-
book fashion.” She would
happily jog with her tail in
the air in the direction Rone-
mus lead her until she
caught a hint of something.
She would sniff it and make
a wider circle just to make
JOLENE GUZMAN/ Itemizer-Observer
Jillian McIntosh, of Madras, works with her dog, Hunter,
on Oct. 29, testing his human remains detection skills.
sure she had the location
correct.
When she was sure, she
would bark and run to
Ronemus.
“Show me,” he said.
Abby would make a bee-
line to the location and bark
again, for which Ronemus
would reward her with a
short game of fetch.
Then it’s on to the next
test.
Ronemus and Abby work
with Jackson County Search
and Rescue. He decided to
test Abby, 4, on SARDUS na-
tional standards for the sec-
ond time at the Dallas clinic.
Her first attempt two years
ago didn’t go as smoothly as
the Oct. 29 test.
He said a good working
dog and human pair has
trust and teamwork “be-
tween their noses and our
brains.”
Under his search and res-
cue uniform, Ronemus wore
a T-shirt with the words
“trust your dog” — printed
upside down so he could
read it.
He did, and he rewarded
his tired puppy with a
much-needed drink of water
after a job well-done.
“She earned her drink,”
he said as Abby relaxed in
the back of his truck.
Ann Wichmann, a SAR-
DUS board member and co-
founder, said the job of the
handler is to help dogs be
more “effective and effi-
cient.” Handlers can evalu-
ate wind patterns and other
conditions to put their dogs
in the best position to do
their job — then they can let
them work.
She said dogs have an ex-
traordinary willingness to
serve their human compan-
ions and that, along with
natural gifts, make them
well-suited for search and
rescue.
JOLENE GUZMAN/ Itemizer-Observer
Eric Ronemus follows his dog, Abby, as she searches for human remains hidden at the
Polk County shops on Oct. 29, part of a Search and Rescue Dogs of the United States clinic.
“They are very fun and
very inspiring to work with,”
she said.
SARDUS, in conjunction
with Region 3 K-9 Search
and Rescue, also conducted
evaluations on “trailing,” fol-
lowing scent trails, and
“w i l d e r n e s s a i r s c e n t”
searches, where the dog tries
to locate people in a certain
area, during the clinic held
Oct. 27-29. Eleven teams
from Oregon, Washington
and California participated.
Mark Cooperider, a mem-
ber of Polk County’s Search
and Rescue Team who
helped organize the clinic,
said these tests establish a
standard for performance
for teams.
“Local teams will test and
certify to a national standard,
which helps ensure consis-
tency in the skill levels across
canine teams,” he said.
JOLENE GUZMAN/ Itemizer-Observer
Abby, 4, happily jogs around the Polk County shops during a test of her searching skills.
She performed well at the clinic, the second time she’s gone through the testing.
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