Another One of Those Searches? Trisha Cox and Thumper CARDA, Butte County SAR When we first had Trish and Thumper in our basic cadaver class, Trish "forgot" to mention that Thumper was deaf. He became a great cadaver dog. Trish writes: "Recently our county agency was asked to assist the local city police department with a search. The general gist was that there was a vague report of someone having jumped into a slough late Sat night or early Sunday morning.  Trish and Thumper We all went out with the attitude... "another one of those searches..." You know the kind... we have all been on them. I initially had that attitude at first as well, but I remembered some words that I believe Laura Rathe once said... always search like your area is the positive one... so I did. And it was! Both of my dogs hit an area on the shore hard -huge animation, practically dancing on air... everything short of a full alert.  Pointing toward where subject was found Thumper lost his mind when I put him away without rewarding him (before the body was actually located). One of the other dog handler’s dog (Madde Watts and River) did something that sealed it for me... she was trying to get UNDER the water to get closer. Once again, none of the dogs did a "trained alert" but boy their body language was better than a gold engraved invitation. I didn't need anything else, that's for sure. It was our recommendation, based on the dogs' actions, that a search be conducted upstream from our location. Much to the local police department’s surprise (as well as their thankfulness and high praise) our dogs were right. The body was located about 25 feet from where the dogs indicated, on the opposite side (an area completely inaccessible to anyone) upstream. It feels very good when YOU as the handler get reinforced in real life that you know you are reading your dog correctly."

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