Scent of the Missing: Love and Partnership with a Search and Rescue Dog


By Tanya Turgeon

Scent of the Missing: Love and Partnership with a Search and Rescue Dog
by Susannah Charleson

Review by Tanya Turgeon
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing, April 2010

304 pages

$26.00

As February approaches, I've decided to turn my attention to a few titles donning that Valentine's Day emotion called love. With the earthquake in Haiti still fresh on our minds I felt it appropriate to begin with "Scent of the Missing: Love and Partnership with a Search and Rescue Dog" since many of these types of teams have already been working diligently for days in the rubble of Port au Prince and will prove invaluable in the weeks ahead.

Susannah Charleson is a dog handler for the Metro Area Rescue K9 unit in Dallas. From the fluidity of her writing, as she captures the growth of her partner (a Golden Retriever aptly named Puzzle) from an independent and willful puppy into a mature certified search and rescue dog, one would never guess this to be her debut book. It is a revelation the time, energy, and work put into training these dogs, especially when Charleson explains these are primarily volunteer positions. As exhausting as it seems, these services are clearly rewarding for both handler and dog.

Despite the physical dangers the team often faces--snagging brush, uneven terrain, weather extremes, possible hidden explosives--the most difficult part seems to be perfecting the connection between dog and handler. Charleson says of one experienced handler, "He had dogs at home that he loved, but his search dog was not one of them...they were functional partners only as long as the handler held real affection at bay." For dog lovers the idea of not falling in love with a dog that you spend 24/7 working and training with may seem unfathomable.

Through Charleson's shared experiences of tracking missing persons dead and alive, standing byduring inclement weather and even searching for human remains after the Columbia shuttle catastrophe the bond between SAR dog and handler becomes defined as a special kind of love involving risk, trust, and always that lurking possibility of injury, loss, and pain. As for Puzzle, she is blessedly unaware of the potential for heartbreak and unequivocally pours her love into the work.

If you enjoyed "Paws to Protect" "Scent of the Missing" is the perfect addendum. It will be available for purchase in April of this year, an apropos time to remember that work in Haiti still needs to done even if it has by then been abandoned by the headlines.

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