A Protective Search and Rescue Dog Harness: The KT Heroes Campaign

A SAR dog working with a handler in a mudslide area

It can happen to any of us at any time.

A missing family member, an act of God, a catastrophe. We never know when a Search and Rescue dog (SAR) may be required to be a lifesaver.

Having had the opportunity to get to know some hero dogs through designing their coats for the American Humane Association’s 2012 Hero Dog Awards,  I can tell you I was humbled by the stories of what they did everyday. That’s why, when I learned about Gail Sanders-Luckman’s noble fundraising project to create a protective Search and Rescue dog harness called KT Heroes, I wanted to share it with you.

Gail founded a company called Kumfy Tailz, making harness vests for dogs with a special feature: the ability to safely warm or cool the dog in extreme weather circumstances via a patented gel technology.

A gel pak is inserted into the harness carriage, in contact with the most important part of the animal for keeping it safe – it’s core. Sadie, the adorable Yorkie mascot of Kumfy Tailz, among other dogs, demonstrate how the harness works.

KumfyTailz Mesh Harnesses for cooling

It occurred to Gail that SAR dogs needed the kind of protection human search and rescue first responders already have. So, she set about creating an Indiegogo fundraising campaign to raise $35,000 to fund the research and development necessary to tailor her existing technology for such extreme circumstances.

A SAR dog leads survivors from a military plane crash site
in Greenland in 1962.

I asked her about some stories she’d heard in her outreach to the SAR community. There are so many, but this one resonated with me for its sheer demonstration of how this could happen to any of us. Yes, these boys didn’t think things through, but if you’re a parent like me, we know our kids sometimes do dumb things or unexpected life circumstances just occur.

The story…

The story she sent was of a 17 year old and a 28 year old boy. A frantic phone call in the middle of the night woke up search and rescue dog handler, Paulette Weible. A mother’s son and his friend were missing since the previous night. They had attended a wedding and decided on the way home to take a detour to see if they could locate a geocache. Geocaching is a real life treasure hunt game based on GPS, where you try to find the “treasure” or container hidden at a certain location using your GPS device. They thought it would be an easy find, but they got lost deep in the woods, after exiting their car.

The area was the headwaters of a small river that runs through Memphis and empties into the Mississippi River 60 miles away.   These boys weren’t prepared for the hunt.  They didn’t have a flashlight or a proper GPS. They had one phone between them, doing triple duty as a flashlight, GPS and their only form of communication. A short while into their search, they dropped it in the water. They had no idea where they were, or if they were heading in the right direction back to the car. They wandered all that night, the next day and into the following night.

By 4:00am, Paulette met the mother and police at the site of the abandoned car, with her 12 year old SAR Bloodhound, Cheyenne. He took  a scent from the car and started his search, leading them down a dirt road and into the woods. After Cheyenne had worked for more than an hour, the ground started getting mushy. Paulette and the police kept calling out the boys’ names, like they were taught to do in K9 SAR courses. Lo and behold, they heard a faint reply.

The woods were so heavy, it was difficult to determine the direction of the reply, but after another hour of searching, the direction Cheyenne had chosen was confirmed as the right one.  The mushy ground turned into ever deepening water until they were struggling in knee deep water and mud.  As the sun slowly rose, they came out of the woods into a vast marsh.  The replies were getting closer.  At last, they saw the two missing boys standing next to a tree about 200 yards ahead.  But, getting to them proved very difficult. Paulette and Cheyenne became mired in the thick and deep muck and couldn’t move. The deputy police carried on and when the mud turned to open water, he had to belly crawl across on hands and knees to reach them. He escorted them back across to other side of the river and to Cheyenne and her handler. They were safe.

Cheyenne just after the search

The campaign:

The Indiegogo campaign will raise the funds necessary to create a product that will help to keep search and rescue dogs safe. The design will include a cooling element, GPS tracking system and LED lights.  In addition to being an important fundraising campaign, it also offers some extremely enticing packages like awesome vacations, a free Kumfy Tailz harness and more, based on how much you can contribute. Everyone gets something, which I like.

There’s also the ability to win big prizes by referring your friends. To become a referrer, log into your Indiegogo account and use the Indiegogo share tools located on the homepage of the campaign. There will be a unique ID associated with the link which will keep track of contributions made by your referrals.

Puppy in training

Summary

SAR dogs are of a special class, whose loyalty and self-sacrifice go much further than our companion animals.  Every day, they save lives by locating lost, injured and distressed people in challenging environments around the world.  In doing so, these Heroes spend their own lives working hard in difficult conditions, giving up many of the comforts enjoyed by our pets at home, and often putting their own health and safety at risk.

Gail Sanders-Luckman emphasized her feelings around pet parenthood by saying, “Like all dog owners, I love my pets and want to repay their affection and loyalty by making them as safe, healthy and comfortable as I can.  Every day, our KumfyTailz customers tell us that our products are having a visible impact on the health and well-being of their beloved pets by protecting them from dangerous conditions like heat stroke and hypothermia, and by making them more obviously comfortable in the heat of summer or cold of winter.

KumfyTailz Warming Coats

“The handlers that own, train and care for these special dogs are among the most altruistic on the planet.  They are almost all volunteers and receive no compensation for their work.  It can cost them up to $60,000 of their own money to raise and train a SAR dog from puppyhood.  They often travel at their own expense.  So we are truly inspired to do whatever we can to keep our costs low and make this special version of our product available to SAR dogs and their owners as inexpensively as possible – or even for free, if we can.”

A truly noble cause, and Gail needs our help. I’m donating to her KT Heroes Indiegogo campaign; won’t you?

Do you know a Hero Dog? Tell me about it in the Comments.

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