Gauze Pads as Scent Articles
Gauze scent articles are no problem. Andy Rebmann used them when he
was a bloodhound handler for CT State Police and trainer for the
NPBA. In his trailing classes he teaches all handlers to use them.
Several of our former students have had finds using gauze pads when
uncontaminated scent articles were not available. All trailing
handlers in King County Search Dogs carry unopened gauze pads and
plastic bags in their search gear.
Scent articles made from gauze pads work on actual searches. Coyote
and I had a walkup find recently using a scent article was made from
two gauze pads.
When Joanne Varney, another trailing handler, reached the nursing
home first, she went in to get two scent articles - one for each of
us. It seems that Herbert had just come from the hospital the day
before. He was wearing all the clothes he had, so there was nothing
to get. Before he took off, Herbert had been lying on top of the
bedspread. Joanne got the pillowcase for one scent article and laid
a sterile gauze pad on the bedspread and another between the sheets.
She handled everything with a plastic bag. I got the gauze
pads in a plastic bag, went to the front of the facility and scented
Coyote on them. She did her usual one-second check, so I presented
it to her a couple more times until she turned her head away and
refused to have anything more to do with it. (Well, I just want to
be certain she gets a good scent!)
Coyote started immediately and led us in exactly the opposite
direction that Joanne and Hylee had gone a few minutes before.
That's another thing that can play with your head! Fortunately, I
know that she often checks many directions at the start, so I just
went with it. Soon Coyote turned herself around, and we restarted at
the front door of the facility (only one that is unlocked). She
started off strongly and kept going until I slipped on a slimy wood
stump. It was cold and had been raining all day. That's why I teach
my dog to take a break! She picked up the scent and led me across
two parking lots, picking up speed as she went along. I could
tell by the pull that she was really on him. So could Paul Fison, my
backup. He kept saying, "She's on him! She's on him!" as
we, by then, ran along. We crossed a road and reached a vacant lot
completely filled with blackberries, an Alzheimer's magnet. Coyote
veered to the right, found a trail into the bushes and disappeared.
She stopped quickly and I looked through the blackberries to see a
small figure sitting on the ground. Paul called, "Herbert"
and the man answered. After six hours he was wet, shivering, but
alive and in fairly good shape. The other members carried him out
and back to the facility while an ambulance came to take him to the
hospital. BTW, Joanne and Hylee were less than a minute behind
Coyote and me!
Search #2 same night:
As soon as we got back home and to bed, we had another callout on
another Alzheimer's. Joanne made it there first and collected the
scent articles. This time she wanted to use his shoes, but the
police and neighbors had already handled most of them. So she got
the shoe that was the farthest away from the others and stuffed a
couple of gauze pads in the toe. That way she made scent articles
that were the least likely to be contaminated. They worked, too. All
three trailing dogs trailed him from where he was last seen to a bus
stop. He was found the next day wandering around a mall where he had
taken the bus.
Marcia Koenig
c. 2001
K-9
Specialty Search Associates
