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Jazzy's Diary

Double major

Jazzy passed her wilderness airscent test back in Nov 2003. On March 19, 2006, she passed her advanced test - human remains detection certification!

Louisiana Search

On Sunday September 4, we were called out. We have been expecting this since the Hurrican hit New Orleans hard. We were standing by until things were a little bit more under control.

Initially this was supposed to be live search but we knew cadaver dogs will be needed as well. Jazzy is cross trained in live and deceased so she was requested. My bf was uneasy about our deployment and my work was not suppotive but I knew I'd have regretted if I didn't go this time.

We searched collapsed houses and endless wood piles. Besides nails and glasses, snakes and contaminated water were the biggest threats to the dogs. Humans had protective gears on but dogs were pretty much naked. They didn't know the difference between training and real searches, they just kept on working happily.

At one search, she fell in the contaminated water. After hearing about the 2 search dogs either getting ill or passed away, I was worried sick. When we came home, one of our team dogs also got sick and his white blood cell count dropped. We all took our dogs to the vets and had blood work done. The test results came back all okay. While waiting for the result, I did not know what to do - I was a wreck. I know she's a service dog but before anything, she is my baby. I am just glad that she is okay.

What would I do without her???

This afternoon, Jazzy & I went to one of our training sites and did some cadaver search training. I picked an area - about 50 acres, walked around the area alone, placed the source, took another path back(to make sure she is not tracking me to find the source) through grassy and wet area.

She did great, I rewarded her in another area for 10 minutes or so. We went back to my car and realized my keys were missing. I froze because the keys included my work keys, home keys, car key, and also a key that opens some of the goverment gates in the city. I was also stupid enough to leave my cell phone and GPS in my car!(GPS would have been real handy to search the area where I walked) I did a grid search of each areas. After a few times of walking the same area, I was getting really worried.

When Jazz was still a puppy, I taugth her to find my keys in the house. I attached a little sheep key chain to the keys so that she could actually pick it up and bring it to me. I hadn't done the exercise for a long time as I never lose my keys (till today). I also removed the sheep thing months ago. I thought I'd give it a try so I asked her "the keys?" She looked at me like 'huh?' and she just wanted to play with me. After a while she just found some shady spots and watched me walking back and forth. 2 hours past, almost giving up, Jazzy came to me and gave me an indication (she jumps on me and pulls a bandana on my belt when she finds people in SAR). I thought she was just goofing around. I said 'show me' doubtfully, then she ran to this bush and did a down. I followed and checked the area but no keys. She stared at me and didn't move from the area. I checked some more ... and there! the keys were right under her belly!

I never taught her to find the keys outside or to do an indication on items. She only does it when she finds people. But because the little woolie key chain was gone and it was hard for her to pick it up, she decided to let me know some other way. It was amazing how she still remembered the old trick. Sometimes I can be such an idiot and I don't know what I'd do without this little smart Border Collie!