HOUGHTON MIFFLIN HARCOURT

1388047

3.4.14

HOUGHTON MIFFLIN

Online Leveled Books

Level: R

DRA: 40

Genre:Informational

Strategy:Summarize

Skill:Author’s Purpose

Word Count: 1,154

by Sienna Jagadorn

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Copyright © by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company

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ISBN-10: 0-547-25375-3ISBN-13: 978-0-547-25375-6

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One fall morning, a sheriff in Montana got a call from a rancher about an abandoned car he had found. Sheriff George Ames knew that he might have trouble on his hands. He sent Deputy Mike Rodriguez to investigate.

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The news wasn’t good. The car belonged to a 73-year-old man from Wyoming. The man suffered from an illness that makes it hard to remember things. His family reported him missing on Tuesday—he had been lost almost five days. It was likely the man did not remember how to get home.

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The sheriff’s office called search and rescue (SAR) groups in the area. A number of SAR teams arrived at the scene. Each team was made up of one dog and its handler, or owner.

Everyone was worried. The lost man could have walked miles from his car. Even worse, rain began falling. If the temperature went below freezing, the rescue teams would be searching in the snow!

The SAR teams had three things on their side. First, they had pieces of the man’s clothing, which the SAR teams called scent-articles. The scent-articles carried the man’s scent, or smell. The dogs could sniff the man’s clothing and learn the man’s scent. Then they could track him by following his scent along the path he walked. Second, the dogs and their handlers were well prepared. Each dog and handler had spent many hours, or even years, practicing for just this type of job. Third, if it took many hours to find the man, each team was ready to work a very long shift.

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Unfortunately, the man’s scent trail wasn’t very strong, since it was now four days old. The dogs couldn’t find any clues to which way he had wandered.

The rescuers had to find another way to locate the missing man.

Rescue dogs are required to wear vests to identify them as official SAR workers.

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Roxanne Dunn and her dog, Ash, made up one of the SAR teams. Ash, a Newfoundland dog, had been trained in air-scenting. Instead of following a trail with her nose to the ground, Ash sniffed the air for the scent of the missing man.

As the temperature fell and storm clouds gathered overhead, Roxanne and Ash started walking downhill. Suddenly, Ash started to run. The dog paused with her nose in the air. She ran back up the hill and sniffed again. Roxanne became hopeful, but she was too far away to see anything.

Newfoundland dogs have an excellent sense of smell and make great rescue dogs

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As Roxanne hiked toward her dog, she heard someone blowing a whistle. She looked across the small valley and saw a police officer pointing toward Ash. When Roxanne got closer, she spotted the missing man lying on the ground, trying to get up.

Ash had found the man by sniffing the air! The man was exhausted, hungry, and thirsty.

Roxanne saw his legs quiver, but he was not injured. Soon a helicopter arrived and took the man to a nearby hospital.

Helicopters allow injured people to be removed from places where ambulances cannot go.

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Hi-Tech HeroesGlobal Positioning CollarsSome dogs wear a special collar that sends signalsto a satellite. The dog’s handler can track the dog without seeing it, using a hand-held computer.

The Nose KnowsDogs find people by tracking the scent of our

skin. Human skin is made of cells that are always dying and regrowing. Every second, hundreds of dry cells fall off the human body and float into the air. The dead skin carries the smell of the person.

Both dogs and humans have places in their noses that can smell scents. But in a dog’s nose, this area is much bigger. It means dogs have a much stronger sense of smell than humans. So dogs’ noses make them natural experts in SAR work.

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What Makes a Good SAR Dog?Good SAR dogs come from many different

breeds. German Shepherds, golden retrievers, border collies, and Newfoundlands can all be good rescuers. They are intelligent, attentive, and have the ability to follow instructions.

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A good personality is probably the most important quality of good SAR dogs. Here are some clues that a young dog is right for the job:

• The dog likes to play with toys.• The dog brings toys to its handler.• The dog keeps looking for a toy when

you hide it.• The dog likes people.

Puppies who like to play for hours may have what it takes for SAR work.

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A SAR dog needs playful energy, but it must also know when to be calm. If a young dog tries to snap at strangers, it might not be able to do the work.

The dog is often part of the handler’s family. A strong relationship grows between them. They become very loyal to each other over years of hard work and play. A SAR dog wears a video

camera on top of its head.

Hi-Tech HeroesHelmet Cameras for DogsSome SAR dogs now wear video cameras on their heads. The cameras let the dogs’ handlers see everything the dogs see by watching the video pictures from the camera.

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Training a SAR DogUsually, the first step in training an SAR dog is

teaching it how to follow the “find sequence.” This is a set of tasks similar to those in real rescue jobs. Trainers supervise a handler and dog team as the team goes through the sequence.

First, the dog go into the woods or fields to look for a person who is hiding. When the dog finds the person, it barks. Then the dog returns to the handler, and then leads the handler to the hiding person.

In training exercises, volunteers might even bury themselves in the snow so dogs can practice finding them.

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Finally, the person who was hiding plays with the dog. This teaches the dog that finding people is fun! The dog and handler learn how to work as a team, building trust between them so that they can patrol together.

Hi-Tech HeroesScent Transfer DeviceSome SAR teams use a special machine called a Scent Transfer Device. It lets them copy the scent from one scent-article onto many pieces of thin fabric. This way, when a rescue mission needs more than one SAR team, each team can have a copy of the scent from the scent-article.

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Helping Save LivesWhen a dog and handler get really good at search

and rescue, the team takes a test. If the team passes the test, the dog and handler are ready to help in a real emergency.

More than 150 rescue organizations in the United States use dogs to find missing people, disaster victims, and criminals. The teams work day or night, in any weather and in any environment.

Most people on SAR teams are volunteers. They don’t get paid for their work. SAR dog owners spend their own money on the dogs’ training, equipment, and medical bills. It’s a tough job for both partners, the human and the dog. But they do it, as their motto says, “that others may live.”

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Responding TARGET SKILL Author’s Purpose What

was the author’s purpose in writing this story? Copy the chart below. In each box, list details you learned from this book. Write the author’s purpose at the bottom.

Text to World Write a paragraph that tells how to use a type of technology that helps people do their jobs such as a computer or a cell phone.

Write About It

Detail?

DetailThe dogs sniff the air.

Detail?

Purpose

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abilityloyallyingpartners

patrolquivershiftsnap

TARGET VOCABULARY

handlerpersonality

sequencetrack

EXPAND YOUR VOCABULARY

TARGET SKILL Author’s Purpose Use text details to tell why an author writes a book.

TARGET STRATEGY Summarize Tell the important parts of the text in your own words.

GENRE Informational text gives factual information about a topic.

HOUGHTON MIFFLIN HARCOURT

1388047

3.4.14

HOUGHTON MIFFLIN

Online Leveled Books

Level: R

DRA: 40

Genre:Informational

Strategy:Summarize

Skill:Author’s Purpose

Word Count: 1,154