Arizona Search Track and Rescue (AZSTaR) is a nonprofit organization comprised of volunteers and their dogs who track and trail lost persons. Victims include those lost in flash floods, desert or wilderness, Alzheimer patients who have wandered off in the city and even cadavers and bones that are 200 years old. Each team consists of a handler/owner, a search dog and a support person. Handlers train weekly with their dogs in organized group situations. Each training setting is geared to a specific type of search, trailing, tracking or rescue.

One such urban training session was at 9:00 p.m. on a recent Thursday at Arrowhead Mall. Sonora, a three-year-old black lab who has been training since she was four months old, sniffed a "scent article" – in this case a bandana in a bag – of the volunteer ‘lost victim’ hiding in the mall. Sonora’s owner/handler, Kathleen Sylvester, harnessed the dog and put her on a long leash. Sonora couldn’t wait to get started. She whined, wagged her tail and pulled at the leash, begging to get going. The handler was unaware of the victim’s location; only the support person knew. That way, Sylvester could not cue the dog.

“The hardest thing for the handler is to trust your dog,” support person Kim Baer said.

Sylvester noted the dog’s performance can also be based on the owner’s actions.

“If something is bothering the owner, it will go right down the lead, and the dog won’t do well,” Sylvester said.

Various scents wafted as she ran along: lingering restaurant aromas, coffee, cleaning solutions, and the scents of all the shoppers throughout the day that only Sonora could detect.

“Teaching dogs to discriminate scents is an important part of their training,” said Kristi Smith, AZSTaR’s public information officer. “Scent is different in different environments. Weather, vegetation and time of day will affect what scent will do.”

A search dog’s sense of smell is 44 times greater than a human’s. Bodies, dead or alive, constantly give off rafts of cells, gases and vapors. Two-thirds of these cells are heavier than air and fall to the ground, forming a trail. As the bacteria on the skin digest the protein in these cells, they convert the cells to vapors. The trailing dog will follow this scent.

Eventually, Sonora stopped at a crossway, her ears pricked up and her nose lifted in the air, as she decided which way to go. Then suddenly she burst into action again, picking up speed as she pulled her owner faster and faster toward the victim. A few feet more yielded the ‘lost victim,’ curled up in a corner, patiently waiting to be found.

A variety of dogs are involved in rescue: Poodles, Labrador retrievers, German shepherds, Rottweilers, Mutts, Bloodhounds and Dobermans to name a few. Medium to large-sized dogs are the best, according to AZSTaR. Short-nosed dogs don’t pick up scents as well as long-nosed dogs. It takes two years to train, so the younger the dog is, the better.

Dogs and their owners must be certified every year. Certification takes one week and includes both field and written tests while testing survival skills. Many of these volunteers have full-time jobs, which makes maintaining their dogs at peak level very time-consuming.

“You have to have a passion for this or you’ll not find the time,” Smith said. “You need to be able to handle snakes and scorpions, and put on your makeup using a signal mirror in the desert.”

Volunteers pay for their own equipment. They must have supplies and rations to survive in the desert for up to 48 hours, including two gallons of water – one for the handler and one for the dog. AZSTaR is always looking for more handlers and their dogs, but beware, it’s not an easy commitment. You need to be able to climb a mountain carrying 30 pounds of gear and water.

Once the victim had been found, Sylvester pulled out her walkie-talkie and reported to home base, “Code F. Status 1,” which translated means, “Found victim. Victim is OK.” She knew she had done a good job, and reaped her rewards: praise and a puppy treat. Then she and her owner returned to the group and the next team was off. This continued late into the night until they were all finished and headed home. Next week they’ll meet in a different setting and do it again.

For more information, contact AZSTaR at 623-878-9149, or visit their website at www.azstar.org.

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