Puppies transformed to be K9 heroes in Oklahoma
TUTTLE, Okla (KOKH) — Ground Zero, where a disaster begins, or in this case where puppies train to become heroes.
At Ground Zero emergency training center they teach dogs the fine art of sniffing out people.
It all begins just a few days after birth.
Head trainer Todd Frazier looks to see which pups have the knack and drive to find a specific scent.
Frazier said, “we get a pup playing with a toy and then we throw it out in the tall grass without them seeing it and look to see which dogs will naturally go find their toy based on scent alone.”
This shows which dogs have a naturally high hunt drive. They use more of their noses and less of their eyes.
Once those dogs have been identified, the wilderness training or rubble training can begin.
Wilderness dogs can find missing or injured people in big spaces, Terri Jungels Ground Zero Executive Director explained, while rubble dogs have a more specific skill set and can search for victims in more hazardous conditions like a collapsed building.
Every dog at Ground Zero is trained to be a wilderness dog.
For them to become certified they must be able to find a live victim on 60 acres in under an hour and a half.
It’s a feat that can seem daunting, but some can do it in 4 minutes like Jungle’s dog Piper.
“We got lucky with the wind that day,” Jungles said when talking about Piper’s testing day.
Weather plays a large role in the search for a victim as Jungles noted.
She said you always want to set a dog up for success which means knowing where the wind is coming from.
Ideally, you would want the wind blowing the victim’s scent into the dog’s nose. That’s not always the case during a live search but it can be manipulated during training. If the scent is blowing away from the dog it will take them longer to find the scent as they search in a cone pattern.
If it is raining or there is lower pressure/temperature, dogs can pick up the scent easier since it will stay closer to the ground rather than rising.
These pups don’t need a person’s shirt or sock to pick up the scent as you see in movies.
They have the ability to find any human who may be lost or hurt using just human scent. Jungles said every human has a unique scent that the dogs can distinguish and decipher between.
“It’s like a cake. We walk into a kitchen we say, ‘Oh my gosh somebodies baking a cake.’ Our dogs go, ‘Oh my gosh. That’s a cake. I smell flour, sugar, water, eggs, utoh where’s the salt?’ And that’s how they know,” explained Jungles.
This goes for rubble dogs as well not just wilderness dogs.
Rubble dogs take wilderness to another level. Frazier said rubble dogs can do everything a wilderness dog can but they have the added bonus of great footing and nerve strength.
That allows them to stand on uneven and sometimes moving surfaces without injuring themselves.
Once a dog has shown great footing and nerve strength, they move onto rubble training where they will learn to search for victims, dead or alive, in natural or manmade disasters.
This is where agility training comes in. This training teaches dogs rear-end awareness.
Frazier said dogs often forget they have back legs, so agility training teaches them to keep their back legs engaged which ultimately keeps them safe while on rubble piles.
“If they’re on a rubble pile and it moves you don’t want them jumping off and getting hurt. You want them to remain calm, ride the wave, and step off when they can,” he said.
Ground Zero trains the dogs until they’re about 1 1/2 years old. At that point, they then turn towards new handlers.
These handlers come from across the U.S. to work with the dogs and take home their new partner.
They work for two weeks learning the ropes and get matched with their partner.
Two handlers in training, during the time we were there, came from Virginia and are members of FEMA Task Force 2. This task force is primarily deployed to hurricane areas, but they also assisted after the 1995 bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City.
Trevor Blank and Wayne Proffitt are both firefighters that say they felt a calling for the K9 program and wanted to work with man’s best friend.
They told us Ground Zero not only trained their dogs but also trained them.
“Day 1, we did an exercise in the morning that put you in the brain of the dog, what the dog’s thinking. Like you’re trying to tell the dog to do something and the exercise he did with us was you’re the dog and we were like well what’s this person saying? What do you want me to do? You know? It let us know, hey you’ve gotta work together and you have to break it down simple for the dog, and the dog’s gonna reward you with what it’s supposed to do,” Proffitt said.
Blank said, “He [Frazier] made you realize how lost and confused you can make the dog.”
Once the handler and dog learn to work together the magic of saving lives can begin.
Both Proffitt and Blank said they couldn’t wait to get their partners and spend the rest of their lives with them.
“I’m so excited,” Blank said. “I can’t even describe it, I’m very excited,” Proffitt echoed.
Not only excited to have a new best friend but excited for the unknown.
“What are we going to do with the dog and where is it going to take us? Hopefully, we can save lives with the dog,” Blank questioned.
“It’s a big journey,” Proffitt agreed, “just waiting for it to happen.”
Once Proffitt and Blank complete training they head home back to Virginia Beach with their new partner in tow.
The dogs are gifted to handlers like Proffitt and Blank and remain property of the training program until they reach retirement age, around 10 years old.
At that point, the handlers have the opportunity to adopt the dog.
Jungle’s said Ground Zero keeping ownership of the dog allows them to rematch handlers and dogs if something just isn’t working out but they hope all their matches stand the test of time.