Customer Reviews

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

5 star:		(62)
4 star:		(20)
3 star:		(8)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I learned two main things from this book. The first was, if I'm ever lost in the wilderness, or my senility increases until I wander aimlessly away from the house, or even, in the worst case, if I drown and my body gets stuck underwater (Yes, these dogs can help pinpoint a body at the bottom of a lake, from a boat on top of it), I want someone like Susannah Charleson and her dog Puzzle to come find me. The dedication that these people, and these animals, show to this grueling, heart-wrenching, UNPAID task, is nothing short of amazing.

By the time Susannah and Puzzle gained their certification in Search and Rescue, they had spent thousands of hours going through practice sessions and over different terrain, honing their communication and teamwork, building their unspoken connection, learning the ins and outs, the habits and tricks of the trade in all kinds of scenarios. Susannah spent years running behind other handler-dog teams before she even got the go-ahead to pick out a puppy to train; years spent handling radio communications and map navigation, years spent observing every other dog in her unit in Texas. And let us note: these are years spent doing these things on weekends, and in the middle of the night after being woken by a page and sprinting out of the house, from dead sleep to fully dressed, equipped, and ready to move in less than fifteen minutes -- and then going to work the next day. This woman, and every other person that is involved in this, is truly remarkable.

The second thing I learned is that I don't ever want to do this job myself. Amazing to read about, but oh man -- I need more sleep than that. I need less time (Not that I spend any now, but you get my point) spent looking for people who are missing and possibly dead, with the chances of a successful rescue growing smaller and smaller as time wears on. I need less time standing watch over a small fragment of the space shuttle Columbia, waiting for an official from NASA or the FBI to come and collect the evidence, one piece of millions spread over thousands of square miles. I need less time spent hiding in between sweaty, smoke-stained mattresses inside a firefighter's practice burn building, in a Texas summer afternoon, posing as a victim for a practicing dog to find. I would like to spend my time playing with my dog, thank you. In the air conditioning.

That is not to say that Susannah and Puzzle -- and Susannah's six other dogs, a variety of rescued Pomeranians -- don't spend time playing; they spend plenty of time playing, and plenty of time relaxing and napping, and bonding into a pack and being together, and all of those things were wonderful to read about. The entire book was wonderful to read, even the sad parts; Charleson is quite a good writer, and the detailed descriptions of the life of a Search-and-Rescue team were fascinating and informative. So I think I'll leave the hard parts to the people who are willing and able to give so much, and I'll just spend my time saying thank you. And recommending this book to anyone who loves dogs (It doesn't end sadly, by the way, like so many other animal books do), and anyone with an interest in the topic. Anyone interested in taking this task on, my hat's off to you.

Who hasn't been moved by the pictures of search and rescue dogs and their handlers at the scenes of major disasters? This is the story of a woman who decides to become a handler and the engaging golden retriever who becomes her partner.

The author, a former flight instructor, finds herself living alone with her pets, when she becomes fascinated with search and rescue. Starting as an assistant, she decides to become a handler. After exhaustive research, she winds up with a retriever puppy she names Puzzle. As she and Puzzle adjust to each other, her household and the training, they slowly learn to trust and love each other. As the author confronts ghosts of the past and health challenges, she learns to appreciate the special bond she has forged with Puzzle and the members of her search and rescue team.

I like that she did not sugarcoat the process or the results. There are anecdotes of real searches, some with happy endings, some without. There are some real laugh out loud moments as Puzzle finds her way into the author's heart and home. I was impressed with the dedication of the volunteer search and rescue teams and amazed by the abilities and intelligence of their canine partners.

This is a must read, honest, uplifting and enjoyable.

I like Susannah Charleson and her dog; I like her book. She has an easy-going, genial kind of approach to her subject matter that makes it a warmly engaging read. She excels at descriptive elements, particularly of her dogs, who just absolutely come alive on the page; I read a few colorful scenes aloud to my husband and 12-year-old son and watched both of them quickly captured as well. Too, the book beautifully balances anecdote and information, managing to be very instructive about search and rescue work in general while still focusing nicely on *this* handler, *this* dog in particular. Charleson intersperses effortless exposition on how dogs work - the different strengths required for searching in different environments; the ways they are trained and motivated to succeed - with stories of her Puzzle's puppydom. She never focuses too long on either aspect, and as Puzzle grows in her understanding of her role, we grow right along with her. We get to both learn and enjoy.

If there was one thing I would have wished to see more of, it would be Puzzle in the field. Puzzle the puppy is delightful, but as much time as I spent silently rooting her on, I would have liked to have seen a little more of her as an adult. I got attached to this pair, and I didn't feel quite ready to say goodbye. It's a small quibble, though, and illustrates the difference between a work of fiction and one of fact. A life in process doesn't always offer a reader a full sense of resolution. That said, the epilogue was much appreciated. It wasn't only Puzzle and Charleson that I hated to say goodbye to.

The book is likely to appeal to those with an interest in realistic stories of heroism (and dogs). It is not gossipy or remotely lurid. Charleson does share some details of her personal life (and quite a bit of her dogs' personal lives) and offer some insight into the lives of those she is called on to help find; there is pathos and drama here. But it isn't the focus of Charleson's account. Like Puzzle, she is focused on the work, and her book keeps its central thread consistent. She, too, lives in a world that doesn't always offer a full sense of resolution; she seems content to trust that what she does has value.

So it does. So does her book.

I opened this book hoping it wouldn't be the typical dog book with the sad ending: that is, "I learned a big lesson and now my dog is dead." It wasn't. Scent of the Missing is really about the love and partnership between a woman and a dog. I expected stories about training and about searches and they are here. But I didn't expect them to be as beautifully written and powerful as they are, especially the searches. Some of them are more powerful because they don't have a final resolution. The author writes that sometimes they search and never find out the answers to what happened and she passes that "ache" (her word, Chapter 1) on to the reader.

The book answers many questions I had about these dogs and how they are chosen and trained - and how they do the work - without being a textbook.

I appreciated what seems to be a realistic look into the working life of a dog team where some conclusions are happy, some are very sad, and some may never resolve at all. I also like that the author tries to imagine what the dogs are thinking about things, but in this book the dogs don't seem like humans. The people working here with the dogs also seem to be real people. For example the handler whose voice shakes after his search dog is nearly mauled by another dog.

If you expect this book to be a roller coaster ride with a big drama at the end and all the questions wrapped up neatly, go to the movies. I think this book is more like the work it describes. A journey with a good dog into unfamiliar places, where good things and bad can happen.

It was a privilege to read this absorbing book. I think reading it was
timed to my needs, because I am training a young assistance/service dog, and
in the book the author trains a young Search and Rescue dog. My dog is a
Standard Poodle, and hers is a Golden Retriever. Both of them love just about
all humans!

I've had a lot of dog experience, including training a dog in tracking
through the Tracking Dog Excellent test level. I wanted to find a way to
pursue my love and ability with dogs, and my health simply would not permit
Search and Rescue. I wasn't interested in showing dogs for competitive titles. I
couldn't imagine dealing with the coming and going of dogs for breeding
them, nor with the dog health issues of breeding.

But then therapy dog volunteer work came along, and it was a perfect fit.
When I had enough knowledge, I wrote a book about it to help other
volunteer handlers and to protect dogs from the many errors people make in putting
them into these situations without proper knowledge. I am so grateful that
the book has made a real difference in therapy dog volunteer work in the
years since.

Reading "Scent of the Missing" makes me enthusiastically recommend this
book. The author has enormous knowledge of the entire process of Search and
Rescue work with dogs, and shares it wonderfully well. The writing is
tremendous.

Some detail about the author's life in the book is very pertinent, too.
She is the dog's handler. They are a team. What affects her affects the dog.
Her story and Puzzle's story are both central to the book.

Her descriptions of situations and scenes and experiences are terrifically
written. I suspect some of her language is influenced by writing reports
for all the training and search work she has done. I love it.

I heartily recommend this book to anyone who is interested in Search and
Rescue dog work. And it will also be of great interest to those who are
interested in dogs who do jobs, in contrast to dogs who are bred and exhibited
in competitive events. Jobs are different. Dogs who can do jobs are
incredible.

If you have noticed a dog suddenly turn nose up into the wind and focus on an air-borne scent, you are observing the basic skill of "air scenting" in action. This innate ability of dogs to discriminate and discern smells makes them vastly superior to humans in blind searches.

A Search and Rescue dog team is often a person's best chance at being found alive when their whereabouts is unknown. Sadly, sometimes the missing are found dead.

Susannah Charleson's memoir, Scent of the Missing: Love and Partnership with a Search and Rescue Dog begins with an urgency similar in feeling to the command given to the Search and Rescue dog to go "Find!"

The reader is pulled into the drama of Charleson.s story immediately, as a missing person's case unfolds in the first chapter. Charleson has raised a Golden Retriever puppy with the intention of becoming a Search and Rescue (SAR) team of dog and handler. In this book you will learn how Puzzle, Charleson's dog, is trained to find people, and how Puzzle helped the author find herself.

A good deal of public interest in SAR dogs has been generated in the last decade, due to large-scale natural disasters making headline news. This book is wonderfully informative about the dedicated dogs and handlers who respond after earthquakes, floods and even man-made disasters. Readers from dog lovers to dog behaviorists will find this book's writing style accessible. I would advise parental discretion and discussion if this book is read by teenagers. There are graphic depictions of the real outcomes of too many missing person cases including cadavers and crime scenes. What may begin as a search for a live person may end in recovery of a body or human remains.

The intensity of the job in which the author and her dog engage is reflected in this narrative, not only by her accounts of tricky situations, but in her skillful writing. Her style is clean, clear and compelling. At the same time, Charleson describes the technical aspects of the job with exactness; her verbal images are masterful literary artistry. Here's an example:

Other nights a blanket of stratiform clouds stretched wide above the little Cessna, and I flew, small and secret, like a child with a flashlight under the blanket, flying beneath an eiderdown beautifully uplit at its edges by the lights cities on the horizon.

A writer, dog-lover and flight instructor who flew search disaster searches, Susannah already knew about the behavior of air currents. This book is a perfect melding of her passions and skills.

The background knowledge that SAR volunteers bring to the search scene are many. Handlers need to be able to read their dog's signals, know about dog behavior and enough about navigation and emergency response in order not to become a victim themselves.

Though she treats her main subject of SAR with gravity and the respect it deserves, we get insight into how she can go about this volunteer job day in and out by her use of humorous musings.

The way she describes her precious dog, Puzzle, is endearing. As a dog enthusiast who has trained dogs to air scent to find people, I know that reading the dog's cues and signals are key to successful SAR teams. Susannah's keen observations of body language and sounds, lead to her deciphering her dog's unique utterances that each convey different meaning. Huffs, woops, woos, pffts, snuffles and waffles dot the pages so that we almost hear Puzzle's voice.

Susannah's reflections about her childhood and personal life give insight to her character, since the reader often wonders why a person could volunteer to do what she does. Through this memoir, we come to understand that regardless of past and present fears, she musters courage to pursue her passions, accompanied by her beloved companion, Puzzle. Where would we be without our faithful companions in times of trouble? This is a story of a journey where the author learns a most important tenet--"Trust the dog."

by Martha Meacham
for Story Circle Book Reviews
reviewing books by, for, and about women

I picked this book because I'm always attracted to books about animals, and because this one is about a cool job!

See, maybe you have a different list for what might make a job cool, but my list includes "get to take your pet to it." That means that in my world you can work in a shop, and if you get to have a pet there and I walk in, I'm going to think: Cool Job. Another thing that makes a job cool is if you're helping people or making the world better. So, teachers are cool, and doctors -- er, the compassionate ones -- are cool, and firemen are cool. Cops are cool, but if they have a dog partner -- off the charts cool. See how that works? President of the United States is a cool job, but I can't say how cool until I know how much time Bo gets to spend in the oval office.

Susannah Charleson has a cool job. She does search and rescue with her lovely dog, Puzzle. They're partners, and the heart of the book is how Puzzle with from a PWP -- puppy with potential to a dog who is doing good work alongside Susannah. While the book takes us on rescues, I feel the author out of respect for the people keeps a little distance. There's also a sadness which permeates some of those chapters when you see the missing person is from poverty and dysfunction and you want them to find the child safe -- and then take him to a better life. The true emotional center is the relationship between dog and handler, and Puzzle's certification is every bit as exciting as the stories of real rescues because we're rooting for her, rooting for them.

I don't think you have to do this sort of work to enjoy this book. Much of it takes place at Susannah's home and includes a large cast of rescued Pomeranians. We see Puzzle as a companion and sister to the Poms, going through the transitions than any dog goes through when she's getting used to her forever home. We get to enjoy her as a companion as well as a working dog, including the bond she forms with the oldest and sickliest dog in the Charleson home.

Susannah worries in the early days that Puzzle might fail to qualify, that she might not obey at a critical moment, that Susannah might be the one to let Puzzle down. The reader gets to see it all come together -- including the moment on a walk when Puzzle makes it clear she can be trusted! From the puppy who seemed to have no special affinity for her new owner, to the adult dog who has formed a bond and an unbreakable connection with her partner, we get to follow them on their journey.

It takes a special kind of person and a special kind of courage to send a dog you love into rubble and dangerous areas to try and help people, knowing the dog trusts you to do what's best. I applaud the author, but it seems too scary for me. I'm glad I got to live it vicariously, and I'm glad I met Puzzle and Susannah.

Overall, this was a very cool job!

I was a distant observer as Susannah became Puzzle's partner, and was very excited when Susannah announced that this book was going to be published. I can't add anything to the other great reviews, except to say that you'll find this book to be an easy read. Susannah's prose is easy to read, and well edited. You'll be wanting more!

Susannah Charleson, who loves her work, her dogs, is a dedicated search and rescue partner with her dog Puzzle and her colleagues, other handlers and their special dogs.

She discusses the meticulous, sometimes very rough (through all kinds of situations, debris, forestland and more) training involved for the handler and her/his dog(s) on this vital component of search and rescue, talks about her dogs, her life, her searches and especially ... "Puzzle", a golden retriever she has had and trained for Search and Rescue, since a puppy.

Several chapters discuss Puzzle's training and include some anecdotes about some (other) handlers who seem to need training from their dogs .... other passages bring to the fore the (now-trained and in service) dogs' joys and sorrows as they react to the outcome of their searches.

A very good book detailing the daily life of the search and reacue dog and its handler -- especially when one reads about the meticulous searches - (wo)men and dogs engrossed in combing every single parcel of land, doubling back, comparing notes, noting what the dogs "alert" on, making conjectures as to where the missing individual might be or what they might have done(Susannah was spot-on, in her assessment of one of Alzheimer's patient Miss Celeste's incredible wanderings).

Discipline and an alert mind on the part of both handler and dog are stressed and revealed here, as well as the conversations, meetings, thinking-on-your-feet and interaction that is so vital and necessary between all humans involved in each specific search.

Here are the searches for wandering Alzheimer's patients, body searches after floods (with one very surprising discovery...), searches for young rebellious runaway kids, a fisherman who didn't heed warnings of incipient lightning strikes (and this part of the book was frustrating -- as the chapter ends, we don't find out what happened to him!), and too, the tragic heartbreaking meticulous search for a mising girl (that chapter too, ends with no resolution) and a lost child that turned up nothing -- until a few days after all the rescuers were called off the search and gone with their dogs -- then, something unforeseen happened. to bring an end to any conjecture.

Here too, are the Columbia Space Shuttle search and recovery efforts, described from the ground up -- as the searchers and their dogs (sometimes needing permission from landowners) make a thorough search of all the land and the trees, encountering obstacles temporarily impeding their progress (slaughtering pits, savage dogs on long chains, even the mother of one family worried that these search-and-rescue people were from Child Protective Services about to take away her children) that do not deter them from their mission.

Although there is some comic-relief (the mystery of the flung coffee, and the hilarious gardening episode involving oversized bright yellow turnout gear and ladybug boots....) "Scent of the Missing" does not mince words -- Search and Rescue is grueling work -- bringing out the "personal best" of handler (and dog), using raw grit, emotions, intellect, practical knowledge of terrain, getting by on little sleep, and first and foremost, knowing your dog(s) and validating their aerts".

The final pages of this book, after all the hard work, sweat, emotions, tragedies and victories, end on a very special note in the Epilogue.

Here's what a good dog book should do: touch your heart, make you laugh, tense you up, teach you something, reaffirm your faith in human and dog. (A great dog book does all that in a big way.) Dog books don't have to make you cry, though many of them do, and that's pretty easy - just kill the dog.

Susannah Charleson, author of Scent of the Missing, didn't make me cry and doesn't kill the dog, but she accomplishes everything else on the list, and really teaches a lot about how search dogs and their handlers operate. Here's the rub, though, she doesn't do it with a lot of drama, nor is there a big change of life at the end of the story. Those two missing pieces keep this memoir out of the 5 star column, and it's also not a solid 4 star read, but close enough. I don't mean to sound tepid - I thoroughly enjoyed this book, but I don't think I'd recommend it to someone who was not a dog lover to begin with.

The story is about Charleson - search pilot, pet lover, big hearted gal - and her relationship with a puppy (Puzzle, a.k.a., Puz) cut out to become a search dog. The book takes us through selection, training, testing, some low key but tense searches, one big search after the space shuttle Columbia disaster, and a small piece of the author's struggle with a kidney ailment. The training and the testing are as much for the author as Puzzle, and part of the story is the bond that is established between them. Tension is added with a "will this relationship work out" twist, but we know it will, so the tension is a little slack. Except for the actual searches the tension is a little slack throughout, and the experience of reading was more like coffee with a smart, articulate, funny, and brave friend than the thrill of reading a page-turner. Charelson does have a real knack for description, and she's mastered the "show don't tell" part of writing, and I think that's what ultimately keeps Scent of the Missing on track.

As said, I recommend it to dog lovers, and highly recommend it folks who are interested in search and rescue. And Susannah Charleson has talent to burn - I hope she has more books in her.