Working class heroes

Some dogs get their training on the job

Debra Melani, Special to the Rocky

Sunday, May 11, 2008

Ken Papaleo © The Rocky

Fourth-grader Brandon Zamora reads The Perfect Cat-Sitter to Dakota, a reading-education assistance dog, at Slater Elementary School in Lakewood in March.

Marcia F. McMahon © Special To The Rocky

Koert sits on a car in which he found a person hiding in a training session.

Ken Papaleo © The Rocky

Colorado Bureau of Investigation agent Jerry Means demonstrates how he carries Sadie, an accelerant-detection dog, into and out of fire scenes.

Ken Papaleo © The Rocky

Means and Sadie check out the scene of a fire in Aurora in March.

Marcia F. McMahon © Special To The Rocky

Search-and-rescue dog Koert returns with a toy that been buried under 5 feet of snow during avalanche training.

George Kochaniec Jr. © The Rocky/2004

Colorado has its own mold dog — Molly, a rescued beagle mix and Englewood resident. With more than 1,000 hours of training under her collar, Molly can detect more than 400 subspecies of molds in quantities as small as 500 parts per trillion.

It's late afternoon in a quiet Slater Elementary School library in Lakewood as Brandon Zamora plops down on a soft blanket next to his reading buddy. Brandon, 9, crosses his legs, smiles at his partner and opens The Perfect Cat-Sitter.

As he begins to read, Brandon's pal, Dakota, inches closer and gives him a quick sniff. Without a pause in storytelling, Brandon lifts his hand and softly scratches behind his partner's ears.

Dakota is a READ dog. He helps children in metro- area schools and libraries become more confident readers. Unlike the students' peers, Dakota never smirks at blunders or makes fun if someone can't pronounce a word.

He's a dog with a job.

Thousands of canines across Colorado belong to the state's workforce. Whether it's their gentle demeanor or keen sense of smell, dogs possess talents that can aid humans in many occupations. Here we salute three such working-class dogs.

Koert

* Age: 5

* Job: search-and-rescue dog

* Organization: Search and Rescue Dogs of Colorado

* Favorite pastimes: swimming, playing fetch, kicking balls across the floor

* Residence: Fairplay

Koert works for hours in the rugged Colorado backcountry tracking missing people, from snowboarders on Wolf Creek to hunters in Park County.

The black-and-white border collie lives and trains hard with his handler, Marcia McMahon, and is a certified air-scent and avalanche-rescue dog.

The dog's motivation?

"Praise is it," McMahon says. "They just do it for the toy and because they like to be with their handlers."

But Koert's job is far from puppy's play.

"Out there, there's a sense of urgency. You can't mimic it in training."

Successful finds end with lots of whoops, head- pats and tail-wags. And the dog clearly understands his mission, McMahon says, noting that when a search ends with no find, he still gets his toy.

"But he doesn't play with it the same way he does when he finds the person."

Koert has joined in a number of high-profile searches, including those for a Marine who staged a disappearance in Eldorado Canyon, a young mother whose disappearance in the Holy Cross wilderness area launched the largest Colorado search ever and a Rocky Mountain National Park ranger who died before searchers reached him.

Koert trains all week and jumps to attention at the sound of McMahon's pager.

"We like helping people," she says. "You get the bug, and that's just what you do."

Sadie

* Age: 2

* Job: accelerant-detection K-9

* Organization: Colorado Bureau of Investigation; training sponsored by State Farm Insurance

* Favorite pastimes: people-watching at the front door and wrestling with CBI K-9 partner Spencer

* Residence: Westminster

Jerry Means dons his jacket and belt equipped with a dog-food-filled pouch, tipping off K-9 Sadie that it's time to work. The black Lab trots excitedly into the blackened, brick building that the Arvada Fire Department uses for training, her nose twitching as she's greeted by a pungent burnt smell.

Sadie zigzags across the concrete floor toward an old couch, where she runs her nose over each cushion. Suddenly she stops, dropping to an attention-like sit. The only thing that moves is her head, bobbing in a rapid-fire back-and-forth motion, down to one spot, up to her handler.

"Show me. Show me better," Means says, hand-signaling his canine partner to continue the pointing routine. When Means is satisfied that Sadie has pinpointed the tiny spot of diluted gasoline exactly, he hand-feeds her.

Means and Sadie train every day for her important job: detecting accelerants at fire scenes to help investigators track down arsonists. The young dog's work has already led to a handful of arrests in her short but busy stint; she's even pointed out a few suspects in a crowd.

"It's not uncommon for someone who starts a fire to watch," Means says. "If they have fuel scent on their clothes or shoes, she'll find them."

Just as Sadie's poster says, "Man's best friend can be an arsonist's worst nightmare."

Dakota

* Age: 4

* Job: reading-education assistance dog

* Organization: Rocky Mountain READ

* Favorite pastimes: Eating yogurt, fetching tennis balls, hunting pheasant

* Residence: Greenwood Village

It all started when Julie Baxter noticed how her new puppy was drawn to kids. She'd bought Dakota, a yellow Lab, for companionship after her husband died. On trips to the mall, Baxter brought along Dakota to get used to people, and he'd gravitate toward youngsters, from toddlers to teens.

So after Dakota was trained as a therapy dog, Baxter decided he was a perfect fit for the READ program, which pairs struggling readers with dogs to help students build confidence in reading aloud.

"I like reading with Dakota," says Kayla Romero, a fourth-grader at Slater Elementary, in Lakewood, where Dakota works twice a week. "I can pick more challenging books, and if there are some words I don't quite know, I don't worry."

Dakota's presence is a morale booster for all the school's students, and he's succeeding at his job, Baxter says.

"We had eight kids last semester, and five of those students got to the next grade level in reading. It's just rewarding to watch these kids grow and know they can become better at anything. Reading is the key to all knowledge, so if you can read, you can do well."

Odd dog jobs

* Agriculture-product-sniffing dogs. Called the Beagle Brigade, the U.S. Department of Agriculture uses these dogs to search for illegal food items at airports and border crossings.

* Cancer-sniffing dogs. Early research using saliva or urine samples suggests dogs might be able to sniff out certain types of cancer.

* DVD- and CD-sniffing dogs. New on the dog-job scene, trainers are experimenting with this specialty to see whether police dogs can take a bite out of pirating.

Want to volunteer your pooch?

Training search-and-rescue dogs typically takes two to three years for certification and requires subsequent training sessions and re-evaluation. The volunteer dogs and their handlers are then on call 2 4/7. Visit Search and Rescue Dogs of Colorado at sardoc.org for more information.

For more information on animal-assisted therapy or activity opportunities, such as READ or hospital work:

* Colorado Therapy Animals, 303-287-9191, coloradotherapyanimals.org

* Denver Pet Partners, 303-948-6363, denverpetpartners.org

* Therapy Dogs International Inc., tdi-dog.org

* Delta Society, deltasociety.org

* Therapy Dogs Inc., therapydogs.com

Other Colorado working dogs

* Mold-sniffing dogs. Trained like fire-accelerant-detection dogs, mold-sniffers alert their handlers to problems in homes and buildings. Colorado has its own mold dog - Molly, a rescued beagle mix and Englewood resident. With more than 1,000 hours of training under her collar, Molly can detect more than 400 subspecies of molds in quantities as small as 500 parts per trillion. She's Mold Detectives Inc.'s "main weapon."

* Mountain-town sled dogs. Many Colorado mountain towns offer dog-sled tours, pulling guests with a team of huskies up mountains and along aspen-lined, snow-covered trails. Mushers act as tour guides, sometimes giving guests a chance in the driver's seat. Just two examples: Mountain Musher Dog Sled Rides, in Vail, which tucks you into a sled with wool blankets and pillows, promising a tranquil ride on a private trail; and Nova Guides, which services Vail and Beaver Creek, offering dog-sled tours of the 10th Mountain Division's historic Camp Hale.

* Goose-hazing border collies. Some parks and golf courses hire dogs trained to scare off geese. Broomfield has its own goose-hazing dogs, Wren and Craig, which stalk geese until they fly off. Hardey Border Collie Goose Patrol serves the metro area with its team of dogs: Fawn, Tug, Darby, BuzzSaw and Skye.