
08/10/2025
We took advantage of a great opportunity today to get a training day in with a new K9 Team in the area! It would be a great help if you could all go to their page with the link below and give them a like and a follow. If you are feeling extra generous click the 3 dots to the right of the blue message button and invite all your friends to follow them too!
Elk Run Fire Department Search 30 met us at Bilgers Rocks to get some much needed training in together. It is so important for all the area K9 teams to have a good working relationship. It really helps to streamline operations when we have a search in the area and multiple K9 teams are called.
Today we had a pretty unique mock scenario for practice. The scenario was that an 8 month old little girl was abducted by her mother yesterday. They were last seen by the porta potty in Bilgers Rocks heading for the woods. From there they traveled .5 miles through the rocks and were picked up by a vehicle at the main entrance to the Rocks.
All the K9s did a fantastic job the whole way around! This was a difficult trail for several reasons. To start, this trail was already over 24 hours old. Some of the K9s used the scent of the mother and others used the scent of the baby that was being carried on the mother's chest in a carrier. It was extremely rough terrain with lots of twists and turns through the rock formations. It was also the busiest day we have ever seen at Bilgers Rocks. There were people and dogs everywhere all day long which was an added distraction and extra scent contamination. Lastly, all of the K9s not only had to finish the trail but at the end they had to be able to tell their handler that the trail ended where they missing persons had been picked up by a vehicle.
Huge thanks to Rachel (Mom) and Jayde(baby) for laying us a great trail yesterday! They were both home safe and sound today while we braved the heat. We also want to thank the Stover family for coming out to do some additional trails with us!