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Coyote Coyote was born on April Fool's Day. I gave her the name of Coyote, the trickster. The birth date and name couldn't have been more appropriate for her. And what a dog she was. I trained Coyote in cadaver, water, disaster and trailing. She and I participated in nearly 250 searches. Coyote had 19 cadaver finds, 8 water finds, 3 walk up lifesaving trailing finds, 1 air scent find, 2 article finds and many evidence trails for the police. But more than numbers, I remember the training and the searches and the untold times she lived up to her name. When we took the FEMA test, instead of being directed through the agility course, Coyote picked up the cones that marked the agility obstacles and ran off with them. I signed us up for more agility classes. But nine days after this fiasco she had her first find(s) - disarticulated bones from a homicide. Another time I wanted to show everyone that Coyote had finally mastered "Doggy Baseball" or the directed send out. She went to first base, and I rewarded her with a treat and then directed her to the pitcher's mound (a plastic platform). She got to the platform, picked it up and ran away with it, much to everyone's delight. The next day I demonstrated the same exercise, but this time holding Coyote's meal and giving her a bite each time she followed my signals to the base. She did it perfectly - barking at me the entire time. Coyote's most infamous "trick" came when we went to Hawaii for a search. Sue Williams and Nike and Coyote and I were searching a native Hawaiian compound. Coyote flushed a bird and chased it. I called to her to come back, but Sue called to me and said I should come through the bushes to them. Sue was standing with a TV crew, dog handlers from the Honolulu PD, agriculture agents, and a little old Hawaiian man who was holding a dead pheasant. She told me that Coyote had flushed the bird, chased it, jumped up, caught it and broke its neck before she landed on the ground. I was horrified and mortified. The agriculture agent told me it was an endangered species, that the Hawaiian man had raised the bird from an egg and that it slept on his bed. I finally caught on that he was embellishing the story. On the way back to the police station to wash off the dogs, the police lined up with their hats over their hearts, clucking to me. The clucking continued for the rest of the search, and I was given a plaque from the NCIS that read, "To Marcia Koenig and chicken killing wonder dog 'Coyote'." I loved going on searches with Coyote. Several from my records stand out:
Coyote and I had the terrific partnership. I like to think that she and Griz are running around harassing each other now. ©2008 King County Search Dogs. All rights reserved |
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