Even though hunters and hikers may point search teams in one direction when a member of their group is lost, Kaya knows better.

On a past Search and Rescue mission for a hiker lost in northern Routt County and on another cooperative effort in November looking for a lost hunter in Grand County, the 5-year-old German shepherd indicated another direction for the lost people.

And she was right.

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“Kaya was spot-on,” said Harry Sandler, an incident commander with the all-volunteer Routt County Search and Rescue team.

The search and rescue group has operated without a canine since 2010, so incident commanders are happy to now have Kaya and fellow team volunteer Yuri Kachuro — Kaya’s owner and handler — at the ready.

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Having the option to deploy a dependable canine team is “indispensable,” said John Williams, the Search and Rescue organization’s incident commander.

“Kaya works so well with the team,” Williams said. “She has a great attitude and loves being part of the team. She elevates the ‘esprit de corps.'”

With modern communication devices utilized by many recreationalists, the K-9 team is not deployed as often as the dog handler would hope. But when it does happen, Kaya’s trailing and tracking skills are a huge plus during time-sensitive missions, Sandler explained.

“It’s good to see Yuri continue the tradition,” Sandler said. “It’s huge what these dogs can do that we humans or machines can’t do.”

Twice during the mission to find a lost female hiker in North Routt County, Kaya was sent up paths toward King Solomon Falls where the lost hiker likely traveled, but twice Kaya indicated a negative. So, Kaya and her handler started again with a scent article from the parking lot and found the hiker had traveled in a different direction.

“For me, it was encouraging and rewarding,” said Yuri, who requested to be referred to by his first name.

Kaya, a loving, large, lean and friendly German shepherd and her handler have trained almost every day since she was 8 weeks old until she was certified in wilderness trailing and footstep tracking before she turned 3 years old.

For tracking, dogs keep their noses close to the ground and follow footsteps and disturbances. For trailing, dogs follow a person’s scent starting with a smell of an article such as clothing or a sleeping bag from the point the lost person was last seen.

Kaya is certified in tracking and mantrailing with the International Search and Rescue Dog Organization and in wilderness and suburban trailing with Search and Rescue Dogs of the United States. Kaya has earned advanced honors known as IGP 3, a competition level for dogs that involves obedience, tracking and protection exercises through the nonprofit United Schutzhund Clubs of America.

In the fall of 2023, Kaya earned a national champion title when the canine team traveled to North Carolina to compete in the RH Search and Rescue Dog National Championship.

Sandler said the county’s rescue squad is lucky to have the K-9 team resource. He is impressed by how much work and time Yuri has dedicated to Kaya’s skill level and said that when Kaya eliminates a direction during a search mission in the field, it helps the team focus its resources effectively.

Along with locating people, Kaya also helped to rescue her own species when she was asked to locate a lost 6-month-old puppy that was ejected from a vehicle during a serious wreck, Yuri recounted. The Search and Rescue dog found the scared puppy hiding under shrubbery near the crash site a day after the incident.

The German shepherd’s acumen comes with her handler’s second try at training a Search and Rescue dog. Kaya turned out to be “exceptional” for the role because she has a high drive, good temperament and friendly manner around people, said Yuri, adding that the dog is physically fit, smart and environmentally neutral, so she is not easily upset, even when riding in a helicopter for a mission.

This week, during a regular Search and Rescue team meeting in a busy room where many members were making and eating sandwiches close by, Kaya was happy to greet the members, walk away from the cold cuts and play a long game of tug-of-war with Yuri using a yellow ball on a cord.

The K-9 handler believes tracking and trailing “is the most challenging discipline because it requires the most training and the most capable dogs.”

Yuri, who has been a Search and Rescue volunteer since 2019, encourages more dog owners to consider getting involved in K-9 Search and Rescue. Dogs should continue to be a productive part of human society, he said. Or, at least, to make sure their dogs know they have a job to do, even as a family companion.

“I think it’s very important for us to preserve dogs as working dogs,” Yuri said. “Dogs need a job; that’s how they evolved.”