Search and Rescue
Virgil's Story
Hi, It's me Virgil. I'm the big good looking guy on the left at 4 weeks old!!!
Part 1 - July 25, 1997
Hi, I'm Alex Maldonado, and Virgil, a Blue Cattle Dog, is my partner in training, for Search and Rescue work. He is 2 years old and I got him specifically for disaster searches. He's been training since he came home with me as a pup.
I have been trained through the Marion County Search and Rescue Task Force, located in Indianapolis, Indiana. This work focuses on disaster search. We also have training in the field of wilderness/area search. I didn't start out using a Cattle Dog. My first dog was a German Shepherd. I was doing what many others had done; thinking they were best suited for search work. However, after several years of learning and re-evaluating, I decided that a smaller, more agile dog could be an asset to disaster site searches. I appreciate many breeds, but I wanted a dog to not only be a great search dog, but to have the kind of personality that would mesh with mine. I remembered the intelligence and working attitude of the Cattle Dogs that I had seen on horse ranches years ago, and I had a Cattle Dog cross that had impressed me as well, so my search for a Cattle Dog for this work began.
As a volunteer, who supplies her own equipment, transportation, dog and time, I had limited funds for traveling cross country to find a dog, let alone the purchase of one - so looking close to home I located a breeder in the south of Illinois. I visited her, and watched her dogs to see that they possessed the abilities I'd needed, plus the personality that I could work with. I wanted a dog that I liked to have around....after all, I'd be spending a LOT of time with this dog, and building a relationship that would transcend a pet relationship. I had done a lot of reading and preparing, to help me to choose a good pup. The qualities I was looking for are most likely the same ones you would use for a good working cattle dog. They were: A bold, curious pup. An independent thinker, yet one which would take directions from afar. He needed to be agile, and to have stamina. A good amount of concentration to a single task was preferred, and one that liked to tug or play ball. As if that wasn't enough, I wanted to know that noises weren't going to bother him and that he would readily bark. In short, I needed an intelligent working partner, who liked to work, season in and season out.
After checking out the litter, I made my decision (or should I say, he made it for me!) I chose the smaller male - he seemed to be a bit more agile and was kind of a "wild-man" - just my type! I named him Outlaw Virgil and two days after bringing him home; his first lesson was started.
Let me explain a bit about training for disaster searches. We teach a 'bark alert', so that after the dog locates the missing person, he will stay and bark, letting the handler know. He is required to stay with the person, even though they may be buried under rubble, and to bark as a sign that a person is there. It's an important part of their training. So, Virgil's first lesson was to bark for his toy, which he was learning beautifully, two days after he came home. He was on his way to becoming a search dog....although it was a long way off at this point!
"Here I am at 12 weeks old. Hey, if you think this is easy you ought to try it.. Thank goodness I have small paws!!"
"After I learned how to walk up and down the 2" x 4" I then learned how to walk across an unsteady plank like you see in the picture. This picture was taken in the spring 1997. ----- I've really come a long way!!!!!!!!"
Early every other Saturday morning, sometimes way before sunup, I am getting my gear loaded in the truck. When Virgil sees that I'm putting on my SAR (search and rescue) uniform, he starts to get excited - he knows it's training day away, with all the other dog handlers. It's round trip on the road 5 hours for training. Virgil and I spend a lot of time in the truck going places. He looks out the window or naps on the way. This also is part of the training, I believe. Sometimes going to a real search site takes some time, and this gets him used to that also. All's quiet until I pull into our training site, which are
"It's hard to see me in this picture because the color of my coat is dark and I blend in. Take a close look and you will see Alex and me in the middle of the picture. Alex is watching while I climb over tires and other junk . I love it!!!! It's great fun!!!"
piles and piles of rubble, rebar, concrete slabs, tubes and debris. Then it is non-stop barking! He knows it's time to work; and is HE's excited! In preparing him to do this kind of work I've taken him to see as many new things as possible,
Alex: "A view of part of the agility course (which we keep changing to challenge the dogs). Virgil is walking over grating and chain-link fencing." ----- Virgil: "I'm sure glad I picked Alex, we are always working and training but it's so much fun!!!!!"
and to hear noises and walk over many obstacles such as stairs and gratings, fencing and logs, and experience meeting a lot of people. Because of my early and ongoing socialization, he really likes meeting new people. He's everybody's friend! In rain, heat, snow and wind there we are - training. (Because we all know that if there was ever a real search, the weather wouldn't cooperate!)
The training of ourselves is as important as the training of our K-9 partners. We learn to be 'victims' for each others' dogs, and to help the dogs overcome many obstacles, that means the ones you can see, and the ones you can't as well.
Alex: "I'm releasing Virgil to practice his "Bark Alert" when he reaches the barrel with someone inside." Virgil: "I love being sent out and as the FBI says, I always get my person."
We hide in pipes, concealed from the dog, sometimes for long periods of time, while each dog navigates the rubble field, searching. Sometimes you need to help a dog to learn to trust itself, as they teach us to trust them.
Alex: "Virgil gets to the barrel (25 yards from start) and begins to bark -- he must stay and bark 30 seconds with out leaving the victim."
The process takes roughly 2 years (more or less depending on the dog, the handler, and the weather conditions!) but it really never ends. You're always refining their skills, and backing up to get a problem rectified. With every new search, you learn new things about your dog. One of the biggest skills for the handler to learn is how to 'read' our dogs. Our dogs tell us many things with their glances, whimpers, or turns of the head - it's our job to interpret all of these. We also have to learn to believe the dog when he tells us something. As humans, we tend to think we know it all; and we've all experienced a time when our dog proved us wrong!
Virgil is a wilderness dog as well, and can search wooded areas for lost people. He doesn't go off and chase a squirrel or rabbit. He's trained to locate a person or a thing with a human scent on it, like a shirt, or glove or backpack.
Virgil: "I'm supposed to stand there while Alex gets the person out. --- I can't help it, I get so excited when I find someone I do the 'Virgil Bounce' along with my 'I found them bark.' "
These are potential clues to the missing persons' whereabouts. There are dogs trained to find the deceased person, called cadaver dogs, but Virgil is trained to locate a living person. We learn about scent (as much is as humanly possible) and what it does over time and in varying conditions. We have taken man-tracking so that we may utilize our sight skills in helping find the victim, too. Virgil shows his Cattle Dog determination, not on cattle, but on finding the missing person. And I suppose that work is work to a working dog - as long as he has a job to do, just let him do it! What I like best about my Cattle Dog, though, is his personality. He's always "up" and is a good friend, on or off the job. He tries so hard to understand what I want from him and forgives my ignorance as a handler.....he's a great little guy, that has taught me a lot. When I first inquired about getting into this work, I had a woman tell me "Once you get into this, it changes your life...it becomes your life." I didn't know it then, but how right she was! I like to think that someday, Virgil will save someone's' life, and that I may be a small part of that. We do it for the victim, and the victim's family. The work is tough sometimes, and we've probably all thought at one time or another "What am I doing?", but we keep on anyway, and I guess we must be a bit crazy for it. I hope you've learned something of me and Virgil, and I hope to write more, as we progress in the world of Search and Rescue. Until then, from 'Team Hell Dog' ( a.k.a. Virgil and Alex) stay safe.
