In 2013, Jody Gruys and her search-and-rescue K-9 partner Dessa were dispatched to help the Colorado Bureau of Investigation close an eight-year-old case of a woman who had died somewhere along the banks of the.
Ray K. Erku / Post Independent
Diesel and Elcha are unlike most pet dogs.
Regular walks in the park aside, these cross-trained canines have a critical job: They locate missing people, dead or alive.
“The dogs have to have the ability to seamlessly switch over from that live find and still tell us they located the subject,” Garfield County Search and Rescue handler Jody Gruys said, “even though they are deceased.”
Garfield County Search & Rescue spent Saturday at the Rifle Ranger District performing training exercises with these naturally-skilled detectives. Battling slight, fluctuating winds, the dogs were put to the test on their abilities to trail, sniff and even detect the presence of human remains.
Glenwood Springs Post Independent
Garfield County Search and Rescue dog Elcha munches on snow during a training exercise Saturday in Rifle. Ray K. Erku / Post Independent
Diesel and Elcha are unlike most pet dogs.
Regular walks in the park aside, these cross-trained canines have a critical job: They locate missing people, dead or alive.
“The dogs have to have the ability to seamlessly switch over from that live find and still tell us they located the subject,” Garfield County Search and Rescue handler Jody Gruys said, “even though they are deceased.”
Garfield County Search & Rescue spent Saturday at the Rifle Ranger District performing training exercises with these naturally skilled detectives. Battling slight, fluctuating winds, the dogs were put to the test on their abilities to trail, sniff and even detect the presence of human remains.