Finding Caleb: Search and Rescue Dog Series

Maria chats with author and rescue dog handler Scott Hammond about his book Finding Caleb: Search and Rescue Dog Series. Scott talks about how he and his dog Boo help find lost people, and gives tips on what to do if you find yourself lost. Finding Caleb is the first of a series (second and third books are already done!)

Episode Transcript

(00:01):
It's Maria's MutS and Stuff. Whata great idea. On iHeartRadio, Welcome
to Maria's MutS and Stuff. Andwith me is author Scott Hammond, and
we're going to talk about finding calibhis Search and Rescue Dog series book one.
I'm intrigued by that, but that'sa question to come. So Scott,

(00:24):
thank you for doing this book andlet's talk about it. What made
you decide to write this book.Well, for a long time, I've
been for almost twenty years, I'vebeen following a mud around a dog around
in the woods looking for lost peopleand had a lot of experiences with that
and it's been really exciting. ButI wanted to share what it's like.

(00:46):
I wanted to share the feelings thatyou have when you find somebody who's lost
or where you bring closure to anevent. And I also wanted to make
a dog a hero. You know, we have a lot of superheroes right
in all of our stories these days, yes, and for me, the
dog is the superhero. It hasa superpower. It's it kind of knows
that, you know, can dothings that we can just not do as

(01:07):
humans, and that's the superhero.And I wanted to bring that dog in
as a superhero, right right,So, in fact, can you indulge
me while I read this in yourbook it's right before it begins Part one
Lost, and you write superheroes dofor us what we cannot do for ourselves.
Marvel Comics got it wrong. Realsuperheroes weigh under one hundred pounds,

(01:30):
have a wet nose, big hearts, four paws, and often a bushy
tail. They cannot fly or smashthrough things. They work quietly, invisibly
in service of us, even thoughtheir life expectancy is just twelve to fourteen
years. Their superpower a nose thatsmells three hundred to five hundred times better
than any human and a heart toserve until they can serve no more.

(01:53):
Oh my goodness, that is justa beautiful thing. If nothing else describes
what a dog is. That islike so perfect. Thank you for that.
Yes, they so bless our lives, and my dogs have so blessed
lives and the lives of others,and they love to do it. Every
once in a while I come acrosssomebody who says, uh, you know,

(02:15):
why are you making your dog work? And he just doesn't see it
as work. Sees it as agame, as a service, as a
fun. Yeah, and you knowit's not work if it's not negative anyway,
No, for sure. And Ithink anyone who would ask that doesn't
know anything about dogs, because dogs, You're right, that's like their job.

(02:36):
They want to do something they yeah, that's what they're so great at.
But let's talk about I mean sometimesand again it's people who don't know
a lot about dogs. And Ithink anyone who's listening to this right now
they know a lot about dogs.But I'm just so always fascinated by the
fact, and you put it infacts three hundred to five hundred times that

(02:57):
a dog's nose I don't think anythingelse in the world can compare to that.
It's just let's talk a little bitabout it, Like what makes it
so incredible that a dog can do, Like a dog can walk into a
room and smell everything separately that wecan't do well, I know, you
know, we know all the biologyof it. I mean, when my
dog drives by Burger King or whenwe're writing by Burger King, he kind

(03:21):
of smells the smell and goes,oh, somebody just ordered a double cheese
with you know, right, right, or double burger with cheers. You
know, they see the world likethey smell the world like we see the
world. Yes, it is probablythe best way to put it in.
And I think we all know thebiology of it. But there's also the
heart that goes with it. Theywant to turn then that incredible gift that

(03:46):
they have, that incredible ability,into something that serves us, and so
they I talked to a veterinarian thislast summer. I met him in Iceland,
but he French veterinarian and he's traineddogs to identify prostate cancer in men.
Wow, and now he's working onCOVID and uh, you know,
you just realize that this capacity isbeyond what we, at least in my

(04:12):
generation, beyond what we imagine dogscould do. We always thought of as
dogs as just a lower or lesserform of life, you know, a
good pet. You know, there'sjust the idea of pet describes the function,
you know, of a dog.And I don't see my dog as
a pet. I know he's ahe's a partner. Yeah, for sure,
for sure. No, it's true. And I think, um,

(04:35):
yeah, I think most people whoown dogs and pets I want to be,
you know, give due diligence tocats because I lean dog. But
uh, you know, they're notjust pets, You're right, they are.
They're like an extension of us,you know, like, yeah,
they just pets, especially dogs makeour lives so much better, I think.

(04:59):
So let's yeah, let's talk alittle bit about because I know your
book. This is book one,So do you have obviously it's a series.
Do you have a plan already orit's going to be written as it
comes to you. The second bookis done. The second book is called

(05:19):
Finding Asher and it will be outin November. The third book is Finding
Molly that'll be out next to April. And there each one of them is
about a search and rescue based onmy search and rescue experience in using dogs
to find people. It's kind ofbased on true stories that way. But
throughout it all is Caleb, whowe meet in the first book is is

(05:43):
kind of like me in the sensethat I didn't understand what dogs could do.
I didn't even I'd had a fewpets, you know that were but
I just didn't understand dogs until Istarted to work with dogs. And so
Caleb is a young boy who's foundin the first book is found by a
dog, and then he becomes kindof an assistant dog handler and learns how

(06:05):
to handle this dog that then goeson adventures with him to find lost people.
Right, right, So, sowhat is it that a dog can
do more so than say you witha search party in finding people. I'll
give you a good example. SoI got called out about two months ago

(06:26):
to a big open field, abig area. It was, you know,
maybe oh maybe a mile square area, and we were asked to look
for a missing person. They've beenmissing for three days and the assumption was
that they had they were deceased,and and it was so it's going to

(06:46):
be kind of a sad situation.Sure, And we had about sixty team
members. Were on a search andrescue team of about sixty people, and
we avoid in too. I wasdeployed into an area that had already been
searched multiple times with ten other people. But I had this secret weapon,
which is boom. Now, whathappens is that scent the dogs. The

(07:13):
wind blows over the scent and picksup the that and then blows it in
kind of a cone shape. Asthe further away it gets from the source,
it blows the wider it gets,and within about three minutes, my
dog is going back and forth,weaving back forth and what they call the
scent cone. And then as hegets closer and closer to the source,

(07:36):
the weaving gets narrower and narrow untilhe just zooms right into it. It
took him twenty minutes to solve aproblem that people have been working on for
three days. That there had probablybeen pure or three hundred people there looking.
There were steps, there were footprintsin the snow within ten feet of

(07:56):
this find. And yet you know, he found, He made the find.
And but I gotta tell you,this is the hardest story for me
to tell, because it's always sohard to find a This was a suicide
victim and the family was there.But I got to tell you the rest
of this story because if I cando it here, I know I understand.

(08:16):
No, of course, you know, it's emotion of it. Yeah.
Yeah. We we went back tothe parking lot after we'd done all
the paperwork and everything, and we'rekind of getting our gear off. We're
all muddy and dirty and cold,and uh and Boot keeps pulling on the
tug on my line, on mylead and keeps wanting to go you know,
he usually doesn't do that. Hekeeps wanting to go over across the

(08:41):
police barrier and see these people.And so finally I ask, you know,
permission, I said, kind oftalk to those people that my dog's
interested in them. And they said, well, that's the family, right,
that's the family of this boy,right, And and so we go
over there. I've never seen anythinglike this. Boost in front of this
young girl. She looks at him, they make eye contact. She breaks

(09:05):
into tears and grabs him and holdsonto him, and he traces and the
tears off her face. He goesdown the row of family members. That
oh my goodness. And you know, that's what I said about heart.
It's you know, it's just evenhard to tell that. I can't even
believe it happened, you know,kind of a feeling, right, and

(09:28):
you know, his job wasn't doneby just right right, like he found
he found the family member, andnow his job was to console the family.
Yeah, yeah, Like I mean, it just shows incredible how dogs,
how smart they are. Yeah,And and and beyond the physical,
you know, find the find.It's it's so intuitive and so emotional.

(09:50):
It's so understanding of what they're doing. Sure, sure, yeah, I
mean you know, I mean there'sthat simplicity, the simple thing that we
know when you're sad, your dogcomes over and licks your face or makes
you feel better. But it's reallytrue, true, I mean the fact
that these were strangers to him,but he knew that they needed to be

(10:11):
consoled. I mean, you can'texplain that to a dog in human terms.
It's just how they're wired. I'veseen it with him before. Yeah,
I've seen it with him before ina few few occasions where I've gone
on a speaking engagement. He doesa little for the term, but dog
and pony shower all the go.And then while I'm going to talking,

(10:33):
and he's bored because he's heard mytalk before, right right, right,
right, you know, he goesand sits next to somebody. And it's
always the autistic kid, sure,in the wheelchair, right, the kid
who feel who's hurting. Sure.And I've had teachers come up to me
and say, that's the best thingin it to have that dog come up

(10:54):
and sit next to my my onekid, who's the lonely kid, who's
the isolated kid, right right,Yeah, they're just amazing that one.
It's true. So Boo isn't yourfirst dog, is he? No?
No, he's not. I startedwith the dog named Dusty, actually hivers.
But Dusty got me into the searchand rescue. He had about a

(11:16):
twelve year lifespan and maybe uh tenyears of searching. Wow. Nice um.
Boo Booth's been out for now sixyears. Even though the book's fictional,
U Boo is real for me,and the dog on the cover is
the real Booth. That's what Ithought. I was going to ask you
that. But and also I askedyou if he was your first. Do

(11:39):
you feel that Boo is different,like almost more intuitive than your last dog,
Dusty? Or do you feel that'sjust a common thing that they both
have. No? No, no, I Boo is something special, something
special. Duty was too right.But Dusty was a really good search dog
and didn't have that compassion sociated withit and with him and so he you

(12:03):
know, he found he did whathe was supposed to do, He did
what he was trained to do.But there's something about Boo that is just
where he's He just wants to absorbthe emotion of the situation as well,
right, right, And so he'skind of a therapy dog but also a
very good search dog, right,and you know that that's kind of a

(12:24):
unique combination. I think, Yeah, you were just reading my mind because
I was going to ask you,and not that you're going to stop doing
search and rescues. But if youever saw that, you decided you didn't
for whatever reason, could you seegoing on with Boo as a therapy dog,
which she kind of answered that.Yeah, And I see the magic

(12:45):
in that now with because of Boo, because he's really helped so many people
when they didn't need They weren't lostin the woods, they just needed somebody
to sitting next to him and bea friend, right. Right, So,
since you're you're you're such an expertat this. It's summertime, kids
are off from school, going outto play. Any advice how to I

(13:09):
mean it sounds almost silly to dayhow to not get lost? But people
get lost? Yeah, are thereany basics, like simple things that we
can share with people like to tryto not get lost? I mean,
we've all been turned around at somepoint as adults, but for kids,
I think it's a lot it's alot more difficult. Obviously, any simple

(13:30):
advice. Well, the practical thing, of course, is to take the
ten essentials, and you'll find thatlist on the internets. You know,
the ten things you really should haveif you go out of sight of the
car, you know you should havewith you these ten items. That's the
kind of basic thing. But Ithink what I want to tell my kids
and my grandkids is if you're lost, people will come to look for you.

(13:54):
Sure, and you know they willcome to look for you. You
will not be be um forgotten um. And And that's the fear that people
I've I've talked to so many youngyoung people who have been lost and then
later found in the words, Iinterviewed one kid that had been lost for
four days wow, and five hundredpeople had been looking for him one day,

(14:18):
um for and um. And whenthey found him, you know,
we brought him down to the campby on a horse. And they found
this kid and he and the clapform. They cheered for him and and he
told me, this is the onlytime in my life anyone has cheered for
me. And you know, itwas so sweet, sweet moment. But
but he didn't understand that this peoplecame from Wyoming in Utah and and Colorado

(14:43):
to look for him. The completestrangers. We are not going to leave
our children, you know, unsearched for. And that's um. So
people will come and and and therewill be a maximum effort and and know
that in your heart, so youwon't be afraid, right, And I
think that makes the big difference ifyou know that somebody's gonna is gonna be

(15:05):
somebody is aware, more than oneperson is aware that you're lost, and
they will come find you, like, don't despair, you will be found.
Yeah, and yeah, you knowthe actually in certain age groups,
the average thing what kids do oftenis hide because of stranger danger. You
know, they got this, OhI don't I'm lost. I better hide
stranger danger kind of thing. Andno, um, stand out in the

(15:30):
open, be visible, right andwe will find you, will find you.
Yeah. I never thought of that, the stranger danger. Yeah,
you're right, you know, especiallylike if they if they see it on
a TV show or you know,fiction, something fake that they would hide
when they're lost, you know.But yeah, be out there and I

(15:52):
guess make noise, right, umyeah, make noise a whistle, have
a whistle. Um. Yeah.I've heard a guy once who was hitting
rocks together because he had screamed askfor help for so long that he had
lost his voice. If he'd onlyhad a whistle, we would have found.
So take you know, a whistleis one of those ten essential items.
It's take that. Uh huh anduh. It's a lot easier to

(16:15):
find somebody with a whistle. Andyou can blow a whistle all day,
but you can only yell for helpfor about two or three, five ten
minutes and your voice is gone rightright, And I guess what's a little
different in today's day and age isthe fact that just about everybody, regardless
of age, has a cell phone. I mean, make sure your cell

(16:36):
phone is charged before you go outon a hike or you go out,
even for kids, because kids carry. There are a lot of places here
in the US though, or thereare a lot of places here in the
rocky mountains at least that where youdon't get we don't get cell phone coverage,
right right, right, and soyeah, and that's what those are
the places where people go hiking.Sure, and then there are kids who

(16:57):
forget them. They are not charged, arged and right right, you know,
there are other things. So butit is a good thing. You
know, cell phones have greatly reducedthe number of the length of searches over
the years because you can ping themsure and find them electronically first and then
go look in a targeted area forwhere they are. Sure, No,

(17:19):
that's true, that's true. SoI mean that's a benefit everyone. You
know, there's a whole thing aboutyou know, cell phone zombies or the
people who are walking with their headsand their phones. But that's the negative.
I think the positive of cell phonesoutweighs and you just you know,
outweighs the negatives. And you justexplain one of the reasons, which is
pretty good. Oh. Absolutely,And then you know most kids know how

(17:41):
to use the navigation staft software.Sure it'll acts even tell them how to
get where they right, right,Yeah, well I do appreciate this.
So finding calebs and I said itincorrectly before is your first book? You
have the other two done. What'snext for you, Scott anything? Well,
I just you know, it's summertime. We sit by the phone and

(18:07):
wait for callouts to go out,so um we get about one a week,
so we're out looking for people whoare lost in in western US.
And um, and that's that hasits joy to it too. But I'm
going to keep writing this series.I really feel like it was originally written
for um young people, for fifteenyear year old and I'm finding that more

(18:33):
and more adults are reading it andreviewing it on Amazon now that it's a
message for everybody that when you're lost, we'll come looking for you, just
like you'd come looking for me.And those dogs are just amazing. Well,
that's wonderful, and thank you fordoing what you do. And give
a big scratch and a kiss toBoo for us. For sure. I

(18:55):
had to put him out to dothis interview. I probably should have brought
him in. You would have barked, Oh that would have been fun.
That's okay, all right, welllet him back in and uh, listeners
can get the book on Amazon,correct, wherever books are sold. Yeah,
wherever books are sold. It's onAmazon, Barnes and Noble, all
of the places that And here's Boo. He just came running. Yeah please.

(19:21):
Oh nice, that's perfect. Ilove it. What a great way
to end this And for more info, you could also go to finding Scott
Hammond with two ms dot com.So Scott, thank you so much,
Thank you, and again a bigthank you to Boo for barking on Q
like that. That was amazing.Thanks all right, take care, thanks
again. Okay bye,