Five years ago, Dr. Eva Briggs became a search and rescue volunteer in Tompkins County, N.Y., a hilly region in the central part of the state marked by gorges, hardwoods, farmland, and a population of more than 101,000.
At the same time, she began to train her dog, Dizzy, a German shepherd, in search and rescue.
“I've always liked being outdoors, plus I've always liked dogs, so once my kids started getting older, I thought, 'This might be an interesting thing to try,'” said Dr. Briggs, a family physician who lives in Marcellus, N.Y., and has a master's degree in environmental forestry from the State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry in Syracuse.
Early on, however, Dizzy struggled to grasp the tasks at hand. “She was a great dog as far as being happy and friendly and having all those other attributes you'd want in a search dog, but she would much rather lay on her back and have her belly rubbed than have to work for her reward,” said Dr. Briggs, who works at two urgent care centers operated by Cayuga Medical Center in nearby Ithaca, N.Y.
Dr. Briggs eventually made Dizzy a family pet and acquired Boomer, a black and white border collie puppy, to train for search and rescue work. Now almost 3 years old, Boomer has not participated in formal search and rescue operations, but he did earn certification in wilderness air scent from the International Police Working Dog Association in October of 2009.
“In an actual search, the canine team would be assigned a specific area, say 40 acres,” Dr. Briggs explained. “The wilderness air scent handler would receive a map or a description of the boundaries and would figure out the best way to walk through the area to search it. The dog works off leash. The dog will find any person whose scent he detects. When the dog finds the subject, he comes back to me and gives his trained indication, which in the case of my dog is a bark, and then he leads me back to the subject.”
Dr. Briggs is currently training Boomer in tracking and trailing skills with the goal of having him earn certification. She described tracking and trailing as a scent-specific job, “where the dog sniffs a scent article and follows the way the person walked, leading the handler to the subject. Every dog works for whatever motivates him. Boomer's reward is tugging with a toy. So in training, whenever he locates a subject, he gets a big party of praise and tugging,” said Dr. Briggs.
Boomer may be relatively new to search and rescue, but Dr. Briggs has long been acquainted. She began her volunteer post armed with the know-how of map reading and compass navigation, thanks to her graduate work in environmental science and forestry and her love of the outdoors, which she traces back to her days as a Girl Scout.
“You're out in the woods, so you're going to have to know basic first aid and CPR,” she said. “It's helpful to have a medical background because the searchers are out there, they're exposed to the elements, they have their adrenaline pumped and they're being physically pushed, so there is the chance of illness or injury.”
As one of about 15 volunteers for Tompkins County search and rescue, Dr. Briggs has participated in several searches as a “ground pounder,” a person who combs through terrain searching for people who are lost or injured. “Usually we have a line of people combing the area for subjects,” she said. “One time we went looking for a man who became lost exploring some property he planned to buy.”
Another time she helped a group of rescuers look for a person who had gone missing in the late fall. “When things started to melt and thaw they had searchers out,” she recalled. “Unfortunately both subjects were not alive when they were found by the search team.”
In addition to being available to assist on the ground, her commitment as a search and rescue volunteer involves attending monthly training sessions and business meetings. She is a member of the committee that plans and carries out the training sessions. “We also do public relations and teaching and interacting with the public, which can be really nice,” she said. “I've even written some book reviews for the National Search Dog Alliance.”
As for working with Boomer, “I do that on my own time,” Dr. Briggs said. “I probably do something training-wise every day, and something specific to search and rescue 2–3 times a week. It makes me go outdoors no matter what the weather is.”