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Tuck Search and Rescue + Therapy Dog

Search and Rescue Find

Nov 1 2009
At 11:30 I got the call from a police officer who was a friend requesting Tuck to find a little girl who disappeared this morning around 9am. (It was cold this morning) NOT from the Sheriff Dispatcher, as per protocol.

I showed up at the scene to find firemen combing a standing field of corn. I got right to work, scented Tuck on the little girl's personal article, and he struck off across a bare soybean field, instead of the corn field that everyone was searching. He entered a narrow strip of woods and then a small strip (about 300 yards wide) of CRP ground.

Tuck then exited the CRP ground, and went into another section of woods. He then went back into the CRP field, and made a loop, and came back into the woods.

He then ran into the little girls white schnauzer type dog. After we finally got someone to take control of the dog, Tuck resumed tracking, exited the woods, and went across a large grassy field. Over the hill, in the grassy field, was the little girl.


Not hurt, a little scared, definitely lost. Tuck was out 18 minutes. Found child. Not in any danger. Everyone was looking for the little girl, just not where she was or could hear them calling.
Including drive time, I was back home again at 2pm. Dog is now bathed, with all the accumulated burrs taken out and his Search gear cleaned, put away and water restocked for another day. Hopefully never to be needed again for anything other than training.

Tuck had his first find. We've trained and trained for YEARS, and it finally paid off.

BTW, I used the new biothane line that I just bought, that was never supposed to tangle. Trust me, they DO. But in the cover we were in, I would have had to remove the line entirely, had we been using conventional tracking lines. I give the biothane lines a THUMBS UP.

Children Reading to Dogs

I work in the schools as a "Children's Reading to Dogs " therapy dog.
Children who don't read well, often are nervous and self conscious when reading to dogs. But their inhibitions seem to vanish when they read to a dog.
The Children Reading to Dog's program is a voluntary program where parents enroll their children as an intervention program.

In my program, I do many tricks. If a child finds a story about a dog that does a trick in a book, I perform that trick for them right then, right now.

The trick is, most of the dog trick stories are in the more advanced books, causing children who want to see how many tricks are in my bag, to read ever harder to gain proficiency.

Each child is allotted a certain level of time. IF that child completes their reading within that time, They are allowed to use up the remainder of their reading time by playing with me.

We may play on the playground
Or we play Hide the Duck, where the child hides a stuffed toy anywhere in a room, in closets, lockers, desks, drawers etc, and I find it with my nose. Just like hide and go seek. If it's there, I will find it. You cannot hide from my nose. I am a Search and Rescue dog as well. So I have a trained nose.

Or we play basketball.
The children also write to me. If they leave a letter in my mail box, they ALWAYS get a letter back! This gives them additional reading/writing incentives.

One child chose to take me tracking. So another child was given mom's car keys, check book, and an envelope with a gift certificate and lose them in a soccer field adjacent to the school. In a couple of hours, my reading child took me out in the field and I showed him how to find all the articles lost with my nose.

One child was assigned, not because he couldn't read, but instead, because he couldn't talk. He had what is known as selective mutism. He learned to relate to me through hand signals. This was immense progress, because he would not use hand signals even with his friends.


In their struggles to read, the children felt motivated to teach me to read as well. I can read 10 words on flash cards and perform the command as read. If I can learn to read, so can they!

Some children went from not being able to read, and jumped 4 grade levels within a school year. Their parents reported that once their children entered my reading program, they became obsessed with being able to read better, and involved their families in finding books to read to me the following week. Many parents said their kids can read BECAUSE of me.

As an addition to reading to me, the children also write letters to me and leave them in my mail box. The first thing I do when I arrive in the classroom is run to check my mail. I return a letter for every letter written, giving additional reading/writing practice for the children. It's FUN TOO!

I love my paw pal mail.


Because I am an ambassador, I also put on educational speeches on responsible dog ownership, responsible dog training, handling, and dog safety.

My responsibilities also include putting on trick dog shows at Nursing homes, Veteran's Hospitals, retirement villages, and in many therapy establishments.