Queen Anne resident Jon Izant secures a King County Search Dogs vest on his 5-year-old flat-coated retriever, Lincoln, for a quick training exercise last week. When Lincoln hears the bells on his harness jingle, he knows it is time to go to work doing air scent search and rescue work.
Photo by Jessica Keller
Queen Anne resident Jon Izant secures a King County Search Dogs vest on his 5-year-old flat-coated retriever, Lincoln, for a quick training exercise last week. When Lincoln hears the bells on his harness jingle, he knows it is time to go to work doing air scent search and rescue work.
When Lincoln, a 5-year-old flat-coated retriever, hears the bells on his orange King County Search Dogs vest jingle, he knows it is time to go to work.
Lincoln and owner/handler Jon Izant volunteer for the King County Search Dogs, a unit of King County Search & Rescue that supports the King County Sheriff’s Office in finding missing people. Lincoln is certified in air-scent search and rescue, where he works off-lead to try and find a person by their scent. He is also cross-certified in human remains detection.
Through his work with KCSD, Lincoln successfully located two at-risk missing people with dementia in the last 18 months. Because of his success, the American Kennel Club Humane Fund awarded Lincoln with the 2022 Search & Rescue Award for Canine Excellence.
Each year, the AKC Humane Fund awards deserving dogs in five categories: deserving dogs each year in five categories: uniformed service K-9; exemplary companion; therapy; service; and search and rescue.
“The stories of some of these other dogs and trainers are pretty amazing,” Izant said. “It’s humbling to be among such company.”
Izant said the award was an “absolute surprise” and is a tremendous honor. A Queen Anne woman who loves flat-coated retrievers heard about Lincoln and his work through KCSD and nominated him for the AKC award, Izant said.
Izant said it takes two to four years of training before a dog is ready to be certified in air scent search and rescue work. To be certified in Washington, Lincoln had to find two people in 40 acres of dense woods in two hours, Izant said. To receive federal certification, a dog has to find two people in 80 acres in two hours.
“I’ll say that, when you’re first starting, it’s impossible,” Izant said.
And despite Lincoln’s success, most searches don’t result in a live find, Izant said.
“A search mission is not like everybody rushing out and looking for Easter eggs,” Izant said.
How a search works
When Izant and Lincoln are called to help find a missing person, the searches are well coordinated and plotted out, with each search and rescue team assigned to a specific zone to look. Not finding someone is actually quite important, Izant said, because if a target area comes up empty, search coordinators can cross off that section and know to direct their attention to other areas.
On a search mission, Izant, Lincoln and a spotter head out into their zone, and Izant directs Lincoln to search. Lincoln will then run ahead 200 to 300 yards sniffing the area, trying to hit upon a scent. When Lincoln finds a person’s scent, he returns to Izant, hits a target hanging from Izant’s pocket and then shows Izant and the spotter where the subject is.
“We’ve had days where he has covered over 26 miles,” Izant said.
Following each training session or successful mission, regardless of whether Lincoln finds a missing person, Izant rewards Lincoln with a rousing game of fetch.
Photo by Jessica Keller
Queen Anne resident Jon Izant secures a King County Search Dogs vest on his 5-year-old flat-coated retriever, Lincoln, for a quick training exercise last week. When Lincoln hears the bells on his harness jingle, he knows it is time to go to work doing air scent search and rescue work.
“He lives for the ball,” he said.
Izant and Lincoln have participated in 26 searches this year and 90 overall. When needed, KCSD will assist in searches outside King County through mutual aid, and Izant said he and Lincoln have gone everywhere from Pierce, Snohomish and Whatcom counties in western Washington, to Yakima on the eastern side of the state.
Each search is a little different, Izant said. A search that results in a live find is “amazing,” he said, and the feeling hard to describe.
“It’s when you’re in the car driving home when you realize ‘Oh my God, my little puppy just saved someone,’” Izant said.
Perfect for searching
Izant said flat-coated retrievers make wonderful search and rescue dogs because they were originally bred to retrieve upland game, and their long coats are suitable for searching in brush. As well, they are friendly, intelligent and energetic, Izant said, and most have perfect temperaments for search and rescue work. They can be stubborn and will get into trouble if they are not given regular mental and physical stimulation, he said.
“If they don’t get some sort of directed exercise regularly, they’ll make up their own, and you won’t like it,” Izant said.
To keep Lincoln in top form, Izant takes him for frequent hikes and regular training exercises with other KCSD members. Although Lincoln has two live-finds to his name, he is no more or less skilled than other dogs in the KCSD team, Izant said, adding many of Lincoln’s canine colleagues are equally deserving of being recognized.
“KCSD has a number of wonderful dogs and skilled handlers, so this award is really a tribute to the KCSD training program and the many regional colleagues who regularly share their expertise,” he said in an email.
With the Award for Canine Excellence, Lincoln will receive a medal and a year’s worth of free dog food. Izant and Lincoln will also be awarded $1,000, which Izant will donate to King County Search Dogs because it is an all-volunteer non-profit that depends on community support and donations.
“So, this donation is going to go help train new search dogs, so I’m very happy about that,” Izant said.
The AKC ACE award show will be shown at 11:30 a.m. Saturday on KOMO Channel 4.
To learn more about King County Search Dogs, visit kcsearchdogs.org.