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PdC native, canine find talent in search and rescue

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Adam Kelly and his adopted dog Zephyr conduct search and rescue missions together in Michigan. (Submitted photos)

Adam Kelly and Zephyr make a discovery on one of their missions.

Zephyr gets some training done on the water.

The search and rescue dog has plenty of time to play too. Here she is dashing through the snow.

By Rachel Mergen

Adam Kelly, a Prairie du Chien native, has lived the vast majority of his life with man’s best friend loyally at his side. For as long as Adam can remember, his family has been the proud owners of a furry companion, and the longest gap he has ever experienced without a dog was his time working toward bachelor’s and master’s degrees. One of the most exciting moments to him was just being able to have a dog once again when he went to Florida for further education.

Adam’s family dog, Zephyr, isn’t exactly the average pet though. Zephyr, now living in Michigan, finds herself as a well-trained, search-and-rescue (SAR) canine.

Zephyr’s life was given a second chance when rescued as a stray and put up for adoption at a Florida PetSmart. Adam accidentally came across the German Shepherd mix puppy, when he had casually stepped into the store to find some treats for his lapdog, Roxie.

“[Zephyr] was laying in her kennel quietly, while all the rest were quite boisterous. After we finished our shopping in the store, we decided to stop and inquire about the puppy outside. We noticed that she was super skinny, she had been picked up as a stray a couple of days prior with her brother but she was very friendly and happy to interact with us. We were told that they estimated the puppy to be about 3 months old but they were not sure about her breed or potential mixes,” Adam described his experience. “My wife then FaceTimed her family back in Wisconsin and they instantly fell in love with the puppy as well. I was just in awe that my wife was all for getting a second dog on a whim. We decided to leave PetSmart to get our dog from home and to return for a meet and greet between the two. It went great, and the rest was history.”

Adam saw great potential within Zephyr. He and his wife went to a family friend for training advice who was involved in SAR with her own dog. The friend raised their knowledge about the opportunity, but Adam and his wife never really considered SAR until moving from Florida to Michigan.

Adam explained his interest in SAR, “One of the big motivators at the time to get involved with SAR was the fact that I was a PhD student that spent a lot of time in a research laboratory. I didn’t get to use my hands-on medical skills to help people directly and therefore wanted to have an avenue to utilize my skills, help others, be active and spend time outdoors, and have an activity to do with my wife and our new dog.”

Adam and Zephyr were a team in training, with a third party never in control. Zephyr, in January of 2016, began training with Michigan Search and Rescue (MISAR) to become a wilderness air scent canine. In this training program, there are three levels that must be completed to become certified and deployable. Each cumulative level was more challenging then the last, containing up to four tests that have to be passed. To succeed at all three levels, the average dog takes approximately two years. Zephyr completed the training a few months before this time estimate though, having been certified on Sept. 1.

“She was given 160 acres to search with a two-hour time limit. The 160 acres were broken down into four 40 acre sectors that contained one to two live subjects, one human remains source, an article of clothing, and one of the sectors was completely empty, but the knowledge of each sector’s contents is unknown to the tester. As a wilderness air scent canine Zephyr has been trained to find live humans, recently deceased human remains, and articles of clothing with fresh human scent,” Adam described Zephyr’s experience in training.

As Zephyr’s handler, Adam has two main commands that he instructs the canine with. The first, “Find,” is followed by Adam having to develop a search strategy. This strategy, according to Adam, is “based upon wind conditions, terrain, and other various factors.” He, in an attempt to continue to match with her, keeps a close eye on Zephyr’s body language and behavior to determine if changes must be made to this plan.

Adam explained what happens when Zephyr, who works off leash and can move out of eyesight and earshot, makes a discovery, “She returns to me to perform a trained indication to tell me that she has found something. Her indication is what is known as a body bang where she jumps off the ground and hits me in the chest with her front paws.”

Following this indicator, the second main command comes into play. Zephyr is given the instruction, “Show Me,” and she takes off into action by leading Adam to her find.

At the location of the find, Zephyr is rewarded with what Adam describes as her “favorite thing in the entire world and is the reason why she lives to search”—a squeaky tennis ball. The only time she is allowed to play fetch with this prize is after a search.

Adam added, “When Zephyr is not working or training she is a regular pet that lives with me and is like most other family dogs, beyond the fact that she is always ready to get to work if I ask her.”

Adam described just a few of his many amazing memories with Zephyr. The first was a moment of intelligence from his companion, “One of the first times I recognized Zephyr’s intelligence was when I watched her take and drop a bone into her water bowl, continue to stare at it for a minute or two, before retrieving it back out when it had softened enough to chew on.”

Adam continued on to mention how friendly Zephyr has been to other animals and people since she was a puppy. He recalled visiting an off-leash park in Miami and having Zephyr trying her best to jump into other cars just to greet the newly arriving people. She would also enjoy showing off her speed in front of the other dogs.

In addition, Adam described a magical moment for Zephyr, “When we moved from Florida to Michigan, Zephyr got to experience her first snow fall. I was apprehensive that she might not like it, but she went crazy and enjoyed it.”

A more moving experience for Adam was when Zephyr and the family originally moved to Michigan. The canine faced a fear period that almost led to her not being able to make the cut to work with MISAR. Adam recollected, “It was amazing to watch her to go from a shy and frightened dog during the beginning of SAR training to a calm, confident and competent search and rescue canine. Once she learned that finding strangers resulted in her favorite thing in the world her confidence and willingness to interact with strangers sky rocketed. This probably would not have been possible without the strong drive or love for her tennis ball that she already had before search and rescue training began.”

Adam, similar to every handler, hopes Zephyr will have a long career as a SAR canine. He looks forward to her, gray in the face one day after retirement, perking up at the idea of another game of “search.”

Until her retirement, Adam and Zephyr will continue their work with MISAR. “In the near future, Zephyr and I have the ability to respond at all times of the day to searches for lost hikers/hunters, children with autism, despondent missing people, or people suffering with Alzheimer’s or dementia. With the help of law enforcement and the entire team of MISAR, Zephyr could potentially reunite loved ones or bring closure to those in need. She has already been involved in numerous searches since becoming deployable this year,” stated Adam about the future.

“Adding Zephyr and subsequently getting involved with SAR drastically changed our lifestyle. It definitely is a hobby and not a lifestyle like many in the SAR community would tell you. We went from enjoying having a pet dog to being focused on her as a working dog, which even has led to us to fostering dogs and even puppies from a local humane shelter in attempt to prepare them to be more adoptable. SAR has become our new past time outside of work,” Adam said about how Zephyr has changed his life.

“For instance, a few weekends ago we had planned spending our Saturday afternoon working on completing a home improvement exercise. Instead, we were dispatched to a search for an elderly woman with dementia. We dropped what we were doing and drove an hour and a half through a torrential downpour to reach the search. It can definitely make it a challenge to completely change our plans or to go without sleep but it is definitely a rewarding experience. Zephyr is always ready to go and never complains about having to go for a search.”

Most canine SAR in the United Sates is volunteer-based and done by people who operate non-profit search organizations, which local, state, and national law enforcement agencies utilize. Located near Prairie du Chien is a SAR branch working in southern Wisconsin called Wisconsin K9 SOS Search and Rescue. More information about this SAR organization can be found at wik9sos.org.

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