The Sheriff ’s Office oversees the County’s all-volunteer Search and Rescue Team and its K-9 crew. Member Cam Daggett (Sun Valley’s Police Chief) says, “Three of us had pet dogs about the same age with the right qualities for search and rescue. They were energetic, toy-oriented, confident. And breed doesn’t matter as long as the dog has good hunting instincts.” Owners Daggett, Johnny Unser, and Chuck Rumpf each spend at least 6 hours/week training their service animals.

The K-9 Team tracks human scent, which consists of heavy warm spores that rise from our bodies and fall to the ground, drifting as they go. Search and rescue dogs can track spores that fall as much as ¼ mile from a person. “Training involves rewarding a dog’s natural instinct to hunt prey with the chance to play with their favorite toy, the one used only in training or searches,” says Daggett. Then, the “prey drive” is re-oriented to hunting people. “One swipe of a tissue over a steering wheel will enable our dogs to track scent on a 12-24 hour old trail across sage brush or a mall parking lot,” he adds. Having a K-9 team adds an extra dimension to search and rescue. Dogs can work more quickly and efficiently than humans, saving time and manpower. While not all searches have happy endings, dogs ease the process. They can confirm that a human is NOT in a particular area, allowing searchers to look elsewhere, and they can bring closure more quickly to a desperate family.