Bloodhound Nose Photo, Courtesy of Sevier County Sheriff's Office, left to right, Richard Berrelez, Officers Jeff Wisecarver and Lynn Breeden along with Breeden's hounds Sadie left and Jake right. Photo, Courtesy of Richard Berrelez, on far right, K-9 Lasley, Connecticut State PD. While Officer Wisecarver was telling me about one of his cases with his bloodhound for a missing person I was thinking, this is a story that will go well at the kick off of the dog training seminar they will be having soon. It is also a story that I should include in the ALIE NEWS. The main focus at the training seminar was to know your dog and listen to your dog. Knowing your dog and listening to your dog is very important in a search. Especially if the dog handler knows that they have done their homework by having invested a lot of hours into the training of the dog, has learn to read the body language of the dog both in training and actual official searches. There is always a tendency to want to take the dog instead of letting the dog lead. How many times has a handler called the dog off before finishing the job for lack of listening to the dog. How many times has a handler felt that the dog was just wasting their time and taking them for nothing more then a very long walk. This type of dog handler probably knows that they do not know their dog at all. In a real search for a missing person where time is a matter of life or death the handler must be prepared. It is very easy to blame the dog if the search does not go well. The dog should not be under estimated it has done it's homework and it did most of it when it met the handler for the first time. A dog will study every move and listen to everything the handler does. The dog will learn to read the handler from day one and long before the handler gets to know the dog. "Officer Wisecarver went to say, I was called to use my bloodhound to search for a 58 year old man, an Alzheimer's patient who had been reported missing from his home. The department's search did not turn up any leads. When I got there I gave my dog the scent article and after a very short time my dog indicated that the man was in the house and never left. I just told the Sheriff, the man is in the house. The house was searched again and sure enough the man was found inside a closet behind a water heater covered with a mattress." The Sheriff asked Officer Wisecarver, "Are you sure he is in the house?" We already searched and did not find him anywhere. Once again, Officer Wisecarver said, "He is in the house." I told Jeff, "You were very confident that he was in the house." Not very many handler would say that with a lot of confidence. Jeff told me, "I know my dog and I can read her very well so I just listened to her. When you know your dog and you know that you have invested quality time in training it and you know you can read its body language and you know that you have done your homework then all you have to do when you are in a search with your dog is just listen to your dog. If you do not have the confidence required to follow your dog and listen to your dog then as a handler you know better then anyone else that you and your dog are not prepared for a missing person's search or any other kind of search.   You and your dog are not the team that should be working a missing person's case where life or death is the case. The man was found alive but another day in the closet and it might have been too late. Our congratulations to Officer Jeff Wisecarver and his dog Haley. This was one of Jeff's earlier cases but one that we choose to tell for others to be better prepared. Richard Berrelez took a flight to Nashville on Sunday, May 18th to attend a dog training seminar host by the Sevier County Sheriff’s Office in Sevierville, Tennessee. The training was set for Tuesday in Sevierville and several surrounding counties attended along with officers from near by states. In Sevierville Richard visited two schools to talk to the students about stranger awareness and safety issues. Officer’s bloodhounds Alie Delta, Jake, and Sadie also visited with the students at the schools. The two schools that were visited were Caton’s Chapel in Sevierville and Rutledge Middle School in Rutledge. Officers that were the key people of the training seminar included Sheriff Ronald L. Seals, Jeff Wisecarver, Richard McGinnis, and Lynn Breeden. Each individual was a great host, a gentleman, and a professional throughout the entire experience. Many other officials were kind and of a great spirit. The bloodhound donated to the Foundation by White River Bloodhounds in Missouri has been place in Arkansas as a police service dog. Officer Chris Lee kept the kennel’s assigned name of Ranger. ALIE donated Ranger to the state of Arkansas on May 24th. Frontier Airlines generously flew the dog from Denver to Oklahoma City to the officer. A two year old female bloodhound was donated to ALIE on May 27th in Denver. After visiting with the dog and screening it for police work Richard accepted the dog from the donor. The dog will be checked by the Foundation’s veterinarian Nicole Bartley, DVM before it is placed in police work. A photo of this bloodhound was included on the last month’s news before it was accepted by the Foundation. Dogs offered to the Foundation will always be posted for the donor as a courtesy when there aren’t pending request from police departments. The Foundation will also ask a donor of a dog for a generous contribution to help with expenses incurred when accepting a dog that will need to be kenneled, check by the veterinarian, and care for until it is possibly placed in police work. Not every dog can be placed in police work. Some of the events that the Foundation will be participating in include the Good Shepherd Care Center, Sky Ridge Medical Health Fair, Kaiser Permanente Health Fair, Cherry Creek Art Festival, and Art & Ale Wild Life Experience in the Denver Area. ALIE operates on your private contributions and support. We look forward to hearing from you if you would like to make a contribution by mail or online, donate a registered AKC bloodhound, request a bloodhound for police work, or request our presence at your special event. We encourage you to support your local police department to keep our children and our communities safe for every child. We support the history and preservation of the United States of America along with the history and rights of Native Americans. ALIE is a 501 (c) (3) non profit foundation educating children and parents about the dangers of child abduction and providing bloodhound dogs to law enforcement for missing children cases. ALIE, PO Box 3673, Englewood, Colorado 80155 (303) 662-8402 Make A Contribution To ALIE