Clara “Dolly” Layman, 73 of Laurens, NY went missing Saturday evening, August 21st. She suffers from early stages of Alzheimer’s. Police and Fire personnel from Laurens and nearby Oneonta begin the search by canvasing neighbors. They checked trails and roads and woods right near the home. They called for more support. They called the New York State Forest Rangers. Mrs. Layman lives in a heavily wooded area. If someone you love is lost in any part of New York where the trees outnumber the buildings, get the rangers. They are the experts. In 2009 they conducted 144 searches and almost as many rescues. Surprised? Most of these stories never make the news. I don’t know why.
About 10 PM the ranger in charge at the time, Ian Kerr, called Roger Fox, Federation Chairman. When the Rangers need manpower, they call us. Most of the searches I go on are run by rangers. And in keeping with the tradition of quasi-anonymity, the Federation doesn’t get mentioned in the news much either.
The search area was just outside Oneonta. The closest Federation member teams are us and Amigo. But we are both K-9 only teams and Ranger Kerr requested ground teams. The call went out to the next closest teams in the Adirondacks and Hudson river valley. And people gave up their Sunday plans, got out their rain gear and showed up. About 20 Federation members join 80 or so other local searchers including rangers, state troopers, several local fire departments, and neighbors. All mobilized in about 10 hours time. We were all told to report at 7AM Sunday. Many of us got there early.
Here was a search for an older person that was being conducted with the same fervor and intensity you would search for a missing child. That is saying something. People are hardwired to respond when a child is in danger. That is why charities so often focus on the plight of children to garner support. The urge to rescue a child is automatic. And when there is a child missing rangers have to worry about how to manage volunteers. The numbers can be overwhelming. The right response for a missing adult doesn’t come quite as naturally to most of us. It has to be thought about. It has to be trained. We need to be reminded of the danger. Clara Layman might have fallen into the pond near her home and drowned. She could be injured. Amir and I spent a good part of Sunday searching a couple of neck breaking ravines near her house along with Ranger Joe Bink and a few members of the local community. What if she had stumbled and fell? Clara Layman is the same age as my mother! I imagined her in the woods–cold, wet, and lost. I imagined myself in the same situation a few years from now.
Sunday ended and Clara Layman was still missing. A second night in the woods, this time a wet one. Even in August it can be cold at night. I drove home worried. It can be difficult to get a good turn out for a weekday search. How many volunteers could afford a day off of work in this economy?
But Monday’s turnout was way better than I expected. More rangers arrived from other parts of the state. So many State Police were in the woods that somebody remarked it might be a good day to rob a bank. Roger put the call out to the entire Federation. And they came……from Lima, Brockport, Waterford, Boonville, Gloversville, Piffard, Johnstown, and Fishkill. Fonda, Saugerties, Munford and West Babylon. Palatine Bridge, Middle Grove, Hancock, Brooklyn, Canajoharie…and…New Jersey.
More than 40 federation volunteers from eleven different teams showed up.
The outcome? Clara Layman, the woman who could be me a few years from now, or my parent, or yours….was found alive and well around noon today, Monday August 23, 2010. She was about 1/2 mile from her house in the woods. She was found by a crew of volunteers–ground pounders, not a dog team. The volunteers on the team that found Clara were not from the federation. They were all from local fire departments. But none of that matters. We were all there. All of us.
We work really hard and we play the same way. And nothing is more fun that swimming with your dog on a hot day. Here we all are after a hot day of training–dogs and people.
You have the boat, the divers or the scent generator, access to the lake. If this is the first time you have been in charge of organizing a What else should you be thinking about?
Check your gear way ahead of time. This is especially important at the start of the season. Do it far enough in advance so that you have time to get things repaired or replaced.
A few years ago, I got out our inflatable boat the night before training. It had been nicely packed away for the winter. Mice had eaten holes right in the side. There we were scrambling for a replacement at the last minute.
Remind your team members about the equipment they will need just for water work. If you have done a lot of water training this list will seem obvious. But if you usually do wilderness work–its very likely that you won’t remember one or more of the following:
Shade–it will be in short supply. Bring your own. 10 by 10 pop-ups work great
PFDs
Clothes suitable for boating and towels to dry off with for handler and dog. Sound obvious? Try it. Don’t remind them and see how many of your teammates show up in their usual BDUs and Hiking Boots
Boat Tenders: On searches you will often have local people driving your boat. But on trainings that job often falls to team members. Develop a cadre of experienced boat handlers and get them in your boat and out practicing before your water training day.
Set up will take longer than you expect, way longer. If you have divers factor in the time it takes for them to get geared up. Also, they will need to swap out frequently. If you are using some other source like a scent pump, it still takes a God-awful amount of time to set up a problem. The hose will always float; the dobber, float or anchor will always come loose, the pump will fail, batteries die. Count on it.By the way, did you invite the local dive team to practice with you? Great. Want to keep them happy? Feed them. And if the weather is at all chilly to arrange for hot food.
Assign team members to crowd control and public relations. If you are training in a high use area and you have two boats, put one of your people in the second boat to answer questions and manage traffic from the water as well. Use one of your most experienced people. Make sure they have the answers to frequently asked questions. Who are you? Did somebody drown? Who gave you permission to train here? Can the dogs really smell things under water? Have you ever found a body? What do you train with? Are you putting body parts in the water? You get the idea.
Run your most experienced dogs first. Get the kinks out of your set-up using dogs that know what they are doing
Have observers on shore watching the dog’s behavior with some way to communicate to the handler. This is good advice for searches as well. It’s damned hard to see subtle changes in K-9 behavior from behind the dog.
If you have a large team, set up multiple problems so that handlers can use down-time profitably.
Pre-plan rotating your key positions. Your observers can’t watch all the dogs, they need to work their own. Likewise, your drivers and Public Relations staff.
Try to plan 5 water training days a year. Your dogs need the repetitions. You need the practice. You put all this work into planning a super training day for your team. Get the most out of it and do it again.
May 26, 2010 10 AM: Today is test day at the Southern Tier Police Canine Association 2010 Police Cadaver Dog seminar. If we pass, Raven and Ripley will be certified Police Cadaver Dogs through the Eastern Police Canine Association. This is Ripley’s 5th time through the process. We re-certify every year. Raven, my 2-year-old, is taking the test for the first time. Several other dog teams are testing today as well including Dick Szczesh and Amanda Scarpato from Amigo Search and Rescue along with their golden retrievers Buddy and Libby.
We have trained and prepared for what is ahead. Still I feel pre-exam nerves. When I got up this morning, I thought “Why am I doing this? I took vacation days to torture myself. ” The truth is my idea of a good time involves putting myself to the test. My guts are roiling. Breathe…..4 counts in, hold for 4, 4 counts out, hold for 4…repeat.. OK. that’s a little better. Pre-frontal cortex is back in the driver’s seat. My reptile brain is still sending out waves of stress but now it feels more like excitement than panic.
4 PM. We made it through all the tests. Both dogs passed. In fact, they did great. Tests are usually set up so that an average dog on an average day has a good chance of passing. They aren’t supposed to be tricky. Still, the buried hide was interesting and allowed the girls to show off a little.
We had an acre area mixed wood and field with a substantial incline. The parking area was on the top. There was a small drainage on one side, and a road on the other. Grass turned to dirt at the bottom of the area.
Sun's energy creates scent cone in opposite direction from the prevailing wind
My plan had been to work from the stream toward the road using the wind. But as I walked toward the evaluator to explain the plan to him, Raven had a head pop. Scrapping the plan I had just outlined I let her go. The sun’s energy heated the dark road surface, pulling the cool air out of the copse of trees creating a little micro current opposite the direction of the wind and a beautiful scent cone for Raven to work. The problem took less than 3 minutes.
The day was miserably hot and humid. To spare the dogs we worked each dog through a single scenario before moving on to the next. The dogs had time to rest and cool off. But I found the waiting a challenge. My ability to channel stress diminishing with each trial. By the last test, the vehicle search, I was sending tension like an electric charge down the lead to Raven. It wasn’t terrible; we did fine, but Dan Wilcox noticed, and that was disappointing. My goal is to keep up appearances from start to finish. We are making progress. Five years ago, at my first EPCA trial, I looked like a wreck the entire time.
Dan Wilcox EPCA Judge Ripley indicating on buried training aid
The truth is I am confident and competent. I know how hard and how often we train. I am good at reading my dogs and I am accurate in my assessments–cataloging our strengths and weaknesses realistically. That is the image I want to present. At the therapeutic boarding school I work at, nobody confuses expressions of doubt with lack of competence. But when I am hanging out with cops, the rules are different. If I want them to see the truth, I need to lie. To present as the confident and competent person I am, I need to keep any and all misgivings to myself. More than anything, for me, taking these tests is my way of working on my persona as a dog handler. So I will go back next year and try again. Maybe mirrored shades will help…..
Rip and Raven are certified in Human remains detection by both civilian and law enforcement organizations. They re-certify every year.
Last year EVDOGS was part of the effort to find the remains of Laura Garza. We searched for her in the Steward Forest Preserve in Orange County. Here is a link to a Times-Herald Record story covering the event.
