It's Maria's MutS and Stuff. What a great idea. On iHeartRadio, Welcome
to Maria's MutS and Stuff. And with me is author Scott Hammond, and
we're going to talk about finding calib his Search and Rescue Dog series book one.
I'm intrigued by that, but that's a question to come. So Scott,
thank you for doing this book and let'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've been following a mud around a dog around
in the woods looking for lost people and had a lot of experiences with that
and it's been really exciting. But I wanted to share what it's like.
I wanted to share the feelings that you have when you find somebody who's lost
or where you bring closure to an event. 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 has a superpower. It's it kind of knows
that, you know, can do things that we can just not do as
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 your book it's right before it begins Part one
Lost, and you write superheroes do for us what we cannot do for ourselves.
Marvel Comics got it wrong. Real superheroes weigh under one hundred pounds,
have a wet nose, big hearts, four paws, and often a bushy
tail. They cannot fly or smash through things. They work quietly, invisibly
in service of us, even though their life expectancy is just twelve to fourteen
years. Their superpower a nose that smells three hundred to five hundred times better
than any human and a heart to serve until they can serve no more.
Oh my goodness, that is just a beautiful thing. If nothing else describes
what a dog is. That is like 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 across somebody who says, uh, you know,
why are you making your dog work? And he just doesn't see it
as work. Sees it as a game, as a service, as a
fun. Yeah, and you know it's not work if it's not negative anyway,
No, for sure. And I think anyone who would ask that doesn't
know anything about dogs, because dogs, You're right, that's like their job.
They want to do something they yeah, that's what they're so great at.
But let's talk about I mean sometimes and again it's people who don't know
a lot about dogs. And I think 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 in facts three hundred to five hundred times that
a dog's nose I don't think anything else in the world can compare to that.
It's just let's talk a little bit about 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 we can't do well, I know, you
know, we know all the biology of it. I mean, when my
dog drives by Burger King or when we're writing by Burger King, he kind
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 like they smell the world like we see the
world. Yes, it is probably the best way to put it in.
And I think we all know the biology of it. But there's also the
heart that goes with it. They want to turn then that incredible gift that
they have, that incredible ability, into something that serves us, and so
they I talked to a veterinarian this last summer. I met him in Iceland,
but he French veterinarian and he's trained dogs to identify prostate cancer in men.
Wow, and now he's working on COVID and uh, you know,
you just realize that this capacity is beyond what we, at least in my
generation, beyond what we imagine dogs could do. We always thought of as
dogs as just a lower or lesser form of life, you know, a
good pet. You know, there's just 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 a he's a partner. Yeah, for sure,
for sure. No, it's true. And I think, um,
yeah, I think most people who own dogs and pets I want to be,
you know, give due diligence to cats because I lean dog. But
uh, you know, they're not just pets, You're right, they are.
They're like an extension of us, you know, like, yeah,
they just pets, especially dogs make our lives so much better, I think.
So let's yeah, let's talk a little 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 or it's going to be written as it
comes to you. The second book is done. The second book is called
Finding Asher and it will be out in 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 on my search and rescue experience in using dogs
to find people. It's kind of based on true stories that way. But
throughout it all is Caleb, who we meet in the first book is is
kind of like me in the sense that I didn't understand what dogs could do.
I didn't even I'd had a few pets, you know that were but
I just didn't understand dogs until I started to work with dogs. And so
Caleb is a young boy who's found in the first book is found by a
dog, and then he becomes kind of an assistant dog handler and learns how
to handle this dog that then goes on adventures with him to find lost people.
Right, right, So, so what is it that a dog can
do more so than say you with a search party in finding people. I'll
give you a good example. So I got called out about two months ago
to a big open field, a big area. It was, you know,
maybe oh maybe a mile square area, and we were asked to look
for a missing person. They've been missing for three days and the assumption was
that they had they were deceased, and and it was so it's going to
be kind of a sad situation. Sure, And we had about sixty team
members. Were on a search and rescue team of about sixty people, and
we avoid in too. I was deployed into an area that had already been
searched multiple times with ten other people. But I had this secret weapon,
which is boom. Now, what happens is that scent the dogs. The
wind blows over the scent and picks up the that and then blows it in
kind of a cone shape. As the 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 he gets closer and closer to the source,
the weaving gets narrower and narrow until he just zooms right into it. It
took him twenty minutes to solve a problem that people have been working on for
three days. That there had probably been pure or three hundred people there looking.
There were steps, there were footprints in the snow within ten feet of
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 so hard 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 can do it here, I know I understand.
No, of course, you know, it's emotion of it. Yeah.
Yeah. We we went back to the parking lot after we'd done all
the paperwork and everything, and we're kind 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 my lead and keeps wanting to go you know,
he usually doesn't do that. He keeps wanting to go over across the
police barrier and see these people. And so finally I ask, you know,
permission, I said, kind of talk 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 anything like this. Boost in front of this
young girl. She looks at him, they make eye contact. She breaks
into tears and grabs him and holds onto him, and he traces and the
tears off her face. He goes down 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 even hard to tell that. I can't even
believe it happened, you know, kind of a feeling, right, and
you know, his job wasn't done by just right right, like he found
he found the family member, and now 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.
It's so understanding of what they're doing. Sure, sure, yeah, I
mean you know, I mean there's that simplicity, the simple thing that we
know when you're sad, your dog comes over and licks your face or makes
you feel better. But it's really true, true, I mean the fact
that these were strangers to him, but he knew that they needed to be
consoled. I mean, you can't explain that to a dog in human terms.
It's just how they're wired. I've seen it with him before. Yeah,
I've seen it with him before in a few few occasions where I've gone
on a speaking engagement. He does a little for the term, but dog
and pony shower all the go. And then while I'm going to talking,
and he's bored because he's heard my talk before, right right, right,
right, you know, he goes and 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 thing in it to have that dog come up
and sit next to my my one kid, 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 your first dog, is he? No?
No, he's not. I started with the dog named Dusty, actually hivers.
But Dusty got me into the search and rescue. He had about a
twelve year lifespan and maybe uh ten years of searching. Wow. Nice um.
Boo Booth's been out for now six years. 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 I thought. I was going to ask you
that. But and also I asked you if he was your first. Do
you feel that Boo is different, like almost more intuitive than your last dog,
Dusty? Or do you feel that's just 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 with it and with him and so he you
know, he found he did what he 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 absorb the emotion of the situation as well,
right, right, And so he's kind of a therapy dog but also a
very good search dog, right, and you know that that's kind of a
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 you ever saw that, you decided you didn't
for whatever reason, could you see going on with Boo as a therapy dog,
which she kind of answered that. Yeah, And I see the magic
in that now with because of Boo, because he's really helped so many people
when they didn't need They weren't lost in the woods, they just needed somebody
to sitting next to him and be a friend, right. Right, So,
since you're you're you're such an expert at this. It's summertime, kids
are off from school, going out to play. Any advice how to I
mean it sounds almost silly to day how to not get lost? But people
get lost? Yeah, are there any basics, like simple things that we
can share with people like to try to not get lost? I mean,
we've all been turned around at some point as adults, but for kids,
I think it's a lot it's a lot more difficult. Obviously, any simple
advice. Well, the practical thing, of course, is to take the
ten essentials, and you'll find that list on the internets. You know,
the ten things you really should have if you go out of sight of the
car, you know you should have with you these ten items. That's the
kind of basic thing. But I think what I want to tell my kids
and my grandkids is if you're lost, people will come to look for you.
Sure, and you know they will come 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 young young people who have been lost and then
later found in the words, I interviewed one kid that had been lost for
four days wow, and five hundred people had been looking for him one day,
um for and um. And when they found him, you know,
we brought him down to the camp by 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 only time in my life anyone has cheered for
me. And you know, it was so sweet, sweet moment. But
but he didn't understand that this people came from Wyoming in Utah and and Colorado
to look for him. The complete strangers. We are not going to leave
our children, you know, un searched for. And that's um. So
people will come and and and there will be a maximum effort and and know
that in your heart, so you won't be afraid, right, And I
think that makes the big difference if you know that somebody's gonna is gonna be
somebody is aware, more than one person is aware that you're lost, and
they will come find you, like, don't despair, you will be found.
Yeah, and yeah, you know the actually in certain age groups,
the average thing what kids do often is hide because of stranger danger. You
know, they got this, Oh I don't I'm lost. I better hide
stranger danger kind of thing. And no, um, stand out in the
open, be visible, right and we will find you, will find you.
Yeah. I never thought of that, the stranger danger. Yeah,
you're right, you know, especially like 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
guess make noise, right, um yeah, make noise a whistle, have
a whistle. Um. Yeah. I've heard a guy once who was hitting
rocks together because he had screamed ask for help for so long that he had
lost his voice. If he'd only had a whistle, we would have found.
So take you know, a whistle is one of those ten essential items.
It's take that. Uh huh and uh. It's a lot easier to
find somebody with a whistle. And you can blow a whistle all day,
but you can only yell for help for about two or three, five ten
minutes and your voice is gone right right, And I guess what's a little
different in today's day and age is the fact that just about everybody, regardless
of age, has a cell phone. I mean, make sure your cell
phone is charged before you go out on a hike or you go out,
even for kids, because kids carry. There are a lot of places here
in the US though, or there are a lot of places here in the
rocky mountains at least that where you don't get we don't get cell phone coverage,
right right, right, and so yeah, and that's what those are
the places where people go hiking. Sure, and then there are kids who
forget them. They are not charged, arged and right right, you know,
there are other things. So but it is a good thing. You
know, cell phones have greatly reduced the number of the length of searches over
the years because you can ping them sure and find them electronically first and then
go look in a targeted area for where they are. Sure, No,
that's true, that's true. So I mean that's a benefit everyone. You
know, there's a whole thing about you know, cell phone zombies or the
people who are walking with their heads and their phones. But that's the negative.
I think the positive of cell phones outweighs and you just you know,
outweighs the negatives. And you just explain one of the reasons, which is
pretty good. Oh. Absolutely, And then you know most kids know how
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 it incorrectly before is your first book? You
have the other two done. What's next for you, Scott anything? Well,
I just you know, it's summertime. We sit by the phone and
wait for callouts to go out, so um we get about one a week,
so we're out looking for people who are lost in in western US.
And um, and that's that has its 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 fifteen year year old and I'm finding that more
and more adults are reading it and reviewing 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 for doing what you do. And give
a big scratch and a kiss to Boo for us. For sure. I
had to put him out to do this interview. I probably should have brought
him in. You would have barked, Oh that would have been fun.
That's okay, all right, well let him back in and uh, listeners
can get the book on Amazon, correct, wherever books are sold. Yeah,
wherever books are sold. It's on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, all
of the places that And here's Boo. He just came running. Yeah please.
Oh nice, that's perfect. I love 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 big thank you to Boo for barking on Q
like that. That was amazing. Thanks all right, take care, thanks
again. Okay bye,