By RACHEL SHUBIN/Special to the Sentinel
CAPE MAY COURT HOUSE — The Cape May County Sheriff’s Department has a new staff member of the four-legged variety.
An 11-month-old bloodhound named Hank (or possibly Hercules) is now on the staff as a search and rescue officer for the Cape May County Sheriff’s K-9 Unit.
“With the addition of this new bloodhound, I wanted to increase the ability to assist in locating missing persons throughout Cape May County and surrounding communities,” Sheriff Robert Nolan said.
The transport
Ontario Bloodhound Rescue (OBR), along with Friends of The Shelter, coordinated a transport for Hank, an 11-month-old from Hartford, Ky., to Cape May. The two-day trip took a handful of volunteers to drive each hour-long segment of the transport trip.
“I posted this transport late and the first day was filled in about a day and a half,” OBR transport coordinator Chris Dillenburg said. “Our drivers are awesome. They step right up and take care of the dogs. I feel very comfident that the dogs are safe with the drivers along their routes.”
Transport volunteer Jeanne Kudich drove a leg from Columbus to Zanesville, Ohio. Years ago, she signed up to drive dog transports and OBR was one of the first organizations she helped. Kudich now drives exclusively for OBR and did not initially realize the rescue is based in Canada.
“I love these hounds and the ones coming from the South especially seem to be bought as puppies then left to fend for themselves,” Kudich said. “Most end up as house dogs but I love that Hank will be out there representing and doing a job.”
Dillenberg said the connection between OBR and the sheriff’s department was made through Mary Beth Klein, a former bloodhound rescuer. The sheriff’s department has previously adopted dogs through Klein.
“Mary Beth reached out to me and asked if we had any young bloodhounds because Cape May was looking for one,” Dillenberg said. “It was a godsend. Over the years with Ontario Bloodhound Rescue, 95 percent of our rescues come from Kentucky.”
The K-9 unit
The Cape May County Sheriff’s Department has a Bloodhound Academy where people from all over New Jersey go for training. Lt. Beth Perednas oversees the Cape May County Sheriff’s K-9 Unit.
“Bloodhounds’ bread and butter seem to be missing-persons calls,” Perednas said. “The sheriff wanted to expand the unit and we do a lot of training to aid our county and other surrounding areas.”
On determining whether Hank was the right dog for the job, Sgt. Russ Norcross said the process initially began when Klein identified that Hank had the personality the department was seeking. “It was a remote selection, and we depend on other people to help us evaluate the dog and its personality,” Norcross said. “Hank is outgoing and wants to engage with people and has a little bit of goofy playfulness to him.”
Two days and several drives later, Norcross picked Hank up from Cherry Hill and took him home to Cape May County.
“We have a [dog named] Hank that just retired and is still around and we’re not ready for another Hank yet,” Norcross said. “Hank may be Hercules; I don’t know if the decision is final yet.”
“Hank-cules” will spend some time bonding with his handler, Officer Nolan Harris, before beginning his 12-week training program at the Bloodhound Academy.
“We have a previous [dog] handler who teaches him all aspects of the job,” Norcross said. “It usually starts with a dog that doesn’t know anything.”
The first step in the program is a basic food-driven game of hide-and-seek.
“There is a high-value reward, usually a hot dog or liverwurst, and the dog gets a few pieces,” he said. “The person who offers the treat runs away from the dog in a straight line and hides behind a tree. The dog’s motivation to get another piece starts the sequence of tracking.”
As the training progresses, distance and contamination are added as elements to the dogs’ training.
“We select bloodhounds because they have a keen sense to scent discriminate and a threshold that exceeds most other dogs’ abilities,” Norcross said. “We [progress training] by adding time, contamination and distance on puppy trails to advanced trails.”
When the dogs are ready to be deployed, they can track highly contaminated trails more than 24 hours old.
“We train a lot in the Washington Street Mall area,” Norcross said. “We will lay a trail out at eight in the morning. By 2 p.m., on a nice spring weekday, there could be thousands of people who have crossed paths of the trail we’ve put out. The dogs ignore the distractions and find the scent they started out for.”
The Bloodhound Academy’s end goal is taking a dog from not knowing anything to having a remarkable ability to trail and a handler who understands the dog’s cues.
“The handler is going to learn how to read the dog’s indications on the trail and when they start to lose the trail,” Norcross said.
Other obstacles are used to train the dogs during trails.
“We don’t have much of that here, but when we go away for training, we find streams, brooks and quick running water and the dogs figure it out pretty easily,” Norcross said.
For tracking, the sheriff’s department relies heavily on bloodhounds, but patrol dogs are also an essential part of the team.
“We have multiple dogs, everybody has a patrol dog,” Norcross said. “I had a German shepherd that retired and was replaced by a younger dog.”
These dogs are trained to find explosives and narcotics and a patrol aspect to track and perform building searches to find hidden suspects. The patrol dogs are successful with trails an hour old or a bit longer, but Norcross said a 6-hour-old trail is effortless for an adequately trained bloodhound.
“The bloodhounds are a big part of our unit,” Norcross said. “It’s not one of the dogs you first think of when you think police dogs, but it’s a good dog that are tried, true and dependable.”