My Search is the result of over 10 years of research, testing and experimenting to find answers for all the people about allergies and sickness, and how and why they were getting them. The author feels that her work will serve and help people around the world. This book is a personal journey of an author who fundamentally cares about the welfare and health of her fellow man, and wanted to use her own personal challenges and transform them into opportunity to learn and better the world around her.
The Dog-Driven Search is a handler's guide to working with a dog in the wonderful sport of nose work. Authors Zinn and Sternberg provide detailed explanations of human body language and the nonverbal conversations we are always having with our dogs. This book teaches the human half of the team how to fully support and trust the canine half of the team, so together they can experience the wonder of engaging in the dog's olfactory world.
"At some point in our lives, we have all been lost in a wilderness of some kind, whether literal or metaphorical, without any direction on how to find our way back home... [P]eople who have been lost, in the wilderness, in the workplace, or in life, can teach us how to go beyond survival and thrive, regardless of the nature of our personal wildernesses.: -- Publisher.
This fascinating book puts the spotlight on working dogs — those heroic canines who have found ways to give back more than sloppy kisses and happy snuggles. The courageous dogs you will meet include: Keno, a yellow Lab, who rescued a lift operator buried in an avalanche. Kobi, a beloved and intelligent family pet with an exceptional sense of smell, who became one of the most famous cancer-sniffing dogs in the world. Tuffy, a Cavalier King Charles spaniel, who served as a grief counselor with Dr. Karla Rose during the horrible days following the Virginia Tech shootings. Abdul, the first service dog for people with mobility impairments, who was trained by Bonnie Bergin and Kerrill Knaus-Hardy and paved the way for people with disabilities to be independent. Anna, a German shepherd, who damaged her lungs searching through the wreckage at Ground Zero after 9/11 and inspired Sarah Atlas to found an assistance program for volunteer search-and-rescue dog handlers. Skidboot, the world-famous Texas blue heeler, who performed for Jay Leno, Oprah Winfrey, and David Letterman and on Animal Planet (with cowboy and entertainer David Hartwig) but started life as an abandoned puppy.
Quick response to natural and man-made disasters can mean the difference between life and death for trapped victims. This is a step-by-step guide to training dogs to the FEMA level for this important work.
"Buzzards and Butterflies is a primer for the canine handler working a human remains detection dog on land or water. This is the text to learn training and search strategies that work for other HRD handlers."--P. [4] of cover.
Lola was a buckshot-riddled stray, lost on a Memphis highway. Cody was rejected from seven different homes. Ace had been sprayed with mace and left for dead on a train track. They were deemed unadoptable. Untrainable. Unsalvageable. These would become the same dogs America relied on when its worst disasters hit. In 1995, Wilma Melville volunteered as a canine search-and-rescue (SAR) handler with her Black Labrador Murphy in the aftermath of the Oklahoma City bombing. At the time, there were only fifteen FEMA certified SAR dogs in the United States. Believing in the value of these remarkable animals to help save lives, Wilma knew many more were needed in the event of future major disasters. She made a vow to help 168 dogs receive search-and-rescue training in her lifetime—one for every Oklahoma City victim. Wilma singlehandedly established the National Disaster Search Dog Foundation (SDF) to meet this challenge. The first canine candidates—Ana, Dusty, and Harley—were a trio of golden retrievers with behavioral problems so severe the dogs were considered irredeemable and unadoptable. But with patience, discipline, and love applied during training, they proved to have the ability, agility, and stamina to graduate as SARs. Paired with a trio of firefighters, they were among the first responders searching the ruins of the World Trade Center following 9/11—setting the standard for the more than 168 of the SDF’s search-and-rescue dogs that followed. Beautiful and heart-wrenching, Hero Dogs is the story of one woman’s dream brought to fruition by dedicated volunteers and firefighters—and the bonds they forged with the incredible rescued-turned-rescuer dogs to create one of America’s most vital resources in disaster response.
One man and his four-legged friends go to war in Afghanistan; a ten-year battle against enemies seen and unseen In Afghanistan, sometimes all that stands between coalition troops and death or serious injury is a dog. Highly trained dogs and their handlers search for improvised explosive devices or hidden weapons out on patrol with combat troops. It’s a perilous job, often putting them right in the firing line, and making them high priority targets for the Taliban insurgents they’re fighting. Shane Bryant, a former Australian Army dog handler, spent 10 years in Afghanistan, working with elite American special forces alongside his four-legged buddies, Ricky and Benny, and managing teams of dogs and handlers. War Dogs is Shane's story – a riveting tale of handlers and their dogs in combat, and a brutally honest account of how a decade as a contract warrior took its toll on Shane’s personal life and his mental health, and how he found hope again.
This is the story of Georgie, a little boy who at only 3 1⁄2 years old is in mortal fear of his mother’s boyfriend who he calls the Rudy monster, and whose only comfort in his life of abuse are his memories of the man named daddy who works where the airplanes live. Of his mother Kellie whose yen for excitement led to the breakup of her marriage to an Airforce officer. Of Rex, the faithful old dog who knows that he must get his boy to a safe place even at the cost of his own life and who takes Georgie to find daddy. Of Captain Allenford, the man named Daddy who while in Afghanistan is powerless to save his little boy. Of Tim Forester, the cop who will stop at nothing, break all the rules and do whatever it to find Georgie and bring him home. And of the Rudy Monster whose brutality is matched only by his cowardice and love of violence.
In late March of 2014, death descended upon the community of Oso, Washington in the form of a massive landslide. Ten million cubic yards of dirt and mud crashed through homes, sweeping a 20-foot-high wall of debris before it and scouring the valley floor. In the cold rain of that morning, an entire community disappeared in a sea of mud. In the desperate hours that followed, rescue crews were able to pull only eight survivors out of the wrecked landscape. And then all became quiet, with the stunned realization that many more people were missing, but none were still living. This is the moment when the story of A Dog's Devotion begins. The emergency call from Oso went out, and was answered by K9 Search and Rescue (SAR) teams from across the Pacific Northwest. Suzanne, along with her 4-year-old Labrador Retriever, Keb, and her teammate Guy, was one of the SAR teams to respond to this disaster. In this book, readers immediately find themselves on the ground in the cold mud of the Oso Landslide Disaster on the desperate search for the remains of over forty lost souls. In subsequent chapters, readers will accompany Suzanne, Guy, and Keb as they are inserted by helicopter to search high snowfields on Mount Rainier, or as they traverse steep, forested slopes searching for the clandestine grave of murder victims. They’ll join K9 Keb, as her keen nose leads to human remains in the forests of Washington State and as far away as the woods of Scandinavia. Keb’s story is of a dedicated K9 who can distinguish the scent of the dead from the scent of the living, and who can detect buried bones and even corpses underwater. Readers will follow this intrepid K9 and her teammates as they face the challenges of changeable weather, deep northwest forests, high mountain slopes, and menacing coyotes to find dead bodies, missing hikers, and even the bones of murder victims from long ago. Among their successes: finding multiple victims buried by the 2014 Oso Landslide, solving the mysterious disappearance of women in wealthy suburbs, and finding human bones thought to be forever lost to time. It’s their story about evolving as search and rescue volunteers while overcoming harsh conditions, inner demons, a rust-bound bureaucracy, and back-stabbing teammates. While internal conflicts threaten their larger K9 team, Keb’s training, loyalty, and perseverance inspire them, and help them find the resolve to carry on their service to the community.
