Search and Rescue dogs are highly trained canines used to locate missing people and their personal items at disaster sites either natural or man-made, crime scenes, and terrorist attacks. Dogs possess the ability to pick up different scents that humans and technology cannot. They travel faster than humans when navigating through rough terrain, which speeds up the process of finding missing individuals. Time is of the essence when working a search and rescue mission. Every minute counts when dealing with life and death. Human emotions can be highly charged during these missions. Therefore, professional search and rescue organizations must maintain a sense of calm and control while adhering to local, state and federal standards.  

Gary Flynn, owner and head handler for The Dog Advocate in Vermilion, Ohio, has been passionate about working with dogs since his time in the military. His training as an infantryman taught him how to navigate in the wilderness. This highly refined skill became very useful when he started working with Georgia Canine Search and Rescue while stationed at Fort Benning. Land navigation skills are extremely useful while working on a mission that may last days, even weeks.

Sometimes these search and rescue missions will take crews into the woods or disaster sites where there are no well defined exits. The crews have to figure out how to navigate through it without getting lost. Before cell phone and GPS technology, search and rescue missions were even more challenging. Gary used his land navigation skills and applied them to become an extremely qualified and well sought after search and rescue handler.

Upon Gary’s discharge from the military, he moved back to familiar territory in Vermilion, Ohio. He knew he wanted to become a professional search and rescue canine handler. He contacted Benji McPeak who owned and operated Firelands Kennels. Benji was a police dog trainer who also trained wannabe professional handlers like Gary. Benji had contracts to train dogs for the Ohio State Police, numerous sheriff departments, and even police departments that had their own canine programs. Gary started training dogs in junkyards searching for various items and conducting car searches for drugs. However, what really sparked his interest was training cadaver dogs - placing cadaver parts in different areas for training purposes for the dog to find.

One of the most important lessons that Gary learned was how to shape dogs into performing desired behaviors. It takes a skillful eye to piece together the deliberate behavior conditioning by the handler with what the dog does naturally. Reading the dog accurately was key to developing the most effective and reliable professional dog. Taking this skillset and applying it to searching for humans, dead or alive, became one of Gary’s specialties. He trained his dog to be a cadaver dog. He used this skill many times when doing area searches of collapsed buildings, floods, tornadoes and other natural disasters.

Gary discovered that how he trained dogs to alert him to dead or live finds was different than a fellow canine handler for the Ohio State Patrol. Gary trained his imported German Shepherd, Iren, to alert him to a deceased body by running back to him, bark 4-5 times, and then run back and forth between him and the deceased. If the body was alive, she was trained to run to Gary, run back to the person, and stay there and bark.

This was vital later on when Gary had his own search and rescue agency and he got a call from a homicide detective for the State Bureau of Investigation (SBI) who was trying to solve a missing persons case. Sometimes Gary was called to help solve cold cases. There was a possibility that by using one of his dog’s keen sense of smell and method of alerting, some of the SBI’s cold cases would result in closure.

One of those cases was a deathbed confession. The murderer told his wife where the body was. Then, the wife was dying and told their daughter. So many years had passed, so the credibility of this confession was suspect. However, the daughter did the right thing and contacted the police. The police made contact with the new owners of her parent’s house. Then, Gary and his cadaver dog, two forensic anthropologists and a coroner showed up. Bingo! The remains were there and the identity of the deceased was verified.

Another pertinent lesson that Gary learned while working for Benji was how to keep a dog engaged with their handler and remain focused with the task at hand for a prolonged period of time. This is the foundation for building the motivation and drive which is required in professional dogs. A tremendous amount of time is spent teaching the dog not to give up. Providing the appropriate rewards and the timing of it is also extremely important to achieve this.

As a professional handler, Gary believes everything he does is intentional. The dogs must be worked in every type of situation imaginable so they ignore the bunny that runs in front of them and continue to search for people or articles of clothing. They have to ignore the juicy cheeseburger on the ground and be motivated enough to stay on course. Many times the dogs are out of the handler’s sight, so it is crucial to work with them in all scenarios in order to ensure they stay on task.

I believe this lesson can be applied on a much smaller scale to every dog owner who wants to train their dogs to do a certain behavior. You have to make it exciting and fun for the dog with plenty of rewards to keep your dog engaged. Otherwise, the dog will wander off mentally and physically because you are not providing enough excitement to keep them interested.

I had the privilege to work with one of Gary’s professional dogs named Abby. First, Gary demonstrated how he worked Abby through the different stages of escalating her drives. Once he got her to where she needed to be, he had me copy him. I put the bite sleeve on my arm and shouted out the German commands for her to run towards me, no leash, no collar, and bite my sleeve. I was not scared because I trusted Gary and knew previously how well controlled Abby was.

Since it was my first time wearing a bite sleeve, I was hesitant and not confident enough. I couldn’t get Abby to respond in the same way that Gary could. Gary told me that I wasn’t all in. I needed to be 100% committed in order for Abby not to be confused with what I was trying to achieve and then stop working for me. I tried again and did better, but I definitely needed practice! This is exactly what Benji taught Gary and Gary taught other handlers.

The easy part is shaping the dog’s behavior. The hard part is teaching the handler to trust their dog and maintain prolonged engagement with them.

Benji introduced Gary to North American Police Work Dog Association (NAPWADA) and North American Search Dog Network (NASDN). These organizations established a working standard for all police work dog handlers and trainers through an accreditation program. There are standards for tracking article search, area search and human remains detection. Any evidence that could be presented in court had to adhere to strict standards so as not to corrupt a crime scene. Gary even brought his dog into court to prove the reliability of their results.

As far as search and rescue missions were concerned, Gary started noticing the lack of standards in place that was prohibiting the expediency and efficiency of conducting and completing a mission. The issue of liability was emerging and the last thing Gary wanted was for him or his co-workers to be sued by individuals because the integrity of the mission was compromised. This was the motivation for Gary to form his own search and rescue agency, Ohio Search Dog Agency, which still exists today.

The impetus to follow through with Gary’s desire to form his own search and rescue agency was when he received 3 calls to find missing searchers in the same county. Gary realized that not all search and rescue handlers had the same land navigation skillset he did. There was no requirement to be trained in that and no guidelines to be certified in wilderness first aid. Being a paramedic is a great foundation for what may be expected of a handler while being deployed on a mission, but it is not the same as wilderness first aid. Injuries from a tornado are different than injuries from a flood or a terrorist attack such as Ground Zero on 9/11.

Search and rescue is not just about the dog sniffing out and finding missing humans. It’s also about getting the proper education required, knowing the standards and most importantly, knowing your dog. Lack of resources, lack of egress, and the undefined time spent searching, are all factors that weed out the professionally trained handlers from the volunteer handlers. Gary understands that people want to volunteer their dog during times of disasters. Their hearts are in the right place, but due to their lack of professional training, they get in the way and can become a liability.

Gary suggests to people who want to become handlers of search and rescue dogs to contact their local Emergency Management Agency and inquire about trainers with credentials and experience in search and rescue in their area. Start your way down the chain of command instead of the other way around. There are too many organizations who claim they are search and rescue experts but they are not. Make sure you weed them out from the real professionals.

Some of the individuals Gary was introduced to when he worked for Benji would become invaluable assets to him when he formed his own search and rescue agency in the 90s called Ohio Search Dog Association, He decided to contact three people he thought would work well together in this new venture. One of them was John Macioce, who had a lot of experience working with professional dogs with Benji like Gary did. Another person was Mike Palumbo, who was the deputy for Union County sheriff’s department. Mike showed and trained labs but did not really have working dog experience. Lastly, Gary contacted Kelly Clark who had been to dog training school in Columbus and went on to work for the city of Oregon, Ohio police department. All four of them signed on the dotted line and Gary filed the paperwork to become the statutory agent for the Ohio Search Dog Association. Gary insured all his dogs which is very important when working treacherous search areas. This was another aspect of setting up a professional and vetted agency.

Gary continued to make connections in Ohio with various police departments, the FBI and SBI. He even had equine teams, dive teams and ground teams to help with search and rescue missions. He was also evaluating dogs and handlers because there can never be enough qualified search and rescue dog handlers. As his reputation grew, police departments sought out Gary’s knowledge and expertise.

“Success is growing it past you” - Gary Flynn

When Gary heard Ohio may be getting a Task Force that was regulated by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), a federal governmental agency, he wanted his team of handlers to be a part of it. He started working dogs in rubble and all sorts of common situations where Task Forces are deployed. They were called on natural disasters and then the ultimate disaster of September 11, 2001.

My next episode with Gary will be released on that memorable date, 9/11/25, which will be an episode you won’t want to miss. He will recount his experience with his Belgian Malinois, Tascha at Ground Zero. Three of the four federally deployed dogs at Ground Zero were from Gary’s Task Force 1. I will include pictures that Gary has allowed me to share with you.

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