Bloodhound training 'big hide and seek game'

Apr. 27—OAKLAND — There's nothing like the bond between a handler and their K-9, Carl O'Neal said.

He has extensive experience as a dog trainer, and is an instructor for the National Police Bloodhound Association.

O'Neal is also a sergeant at the Kanawha County Sheriff's Office in West Virginia where he works with Loosiee, a 9-year-old bloodhound, to save lives and catch criminals.

"I love my job," he said. "There's nothing more rewarding than that."

The connection between the dog and handler is "just an unbelievable relationship," O'Neal said.

On Tuesday, he and Loosiee were at a private farm in Garrett County as part of a 40-hour seminar and certification program hosted by the NPBA.

Roughly 55 K-9 handlers were at the event, which included some classroom learning and a lot of field training.

The officers and dogs came from states, including New York, Michigan and North Carolina.

In addition to the annual spring event in Garrett County, NPBA hosts a winter training in California and a fall seminar in South Carolina.

Chris Nichols is NPBA's training coordinator and a K-9 officer in Newton, New Jersey.

"Our training process holds the most weight throughout the country," Nichols said of the NPBA program.

Training for the bloodhounds is constant and includes skills to find folks with cognitive disabilities such as dementia, he said.

Sometimes lost people "don't even know they're missing," Nichols said.

"Everything is scent based," he said of the dogs' work.

"They love it. We treat them like kings and queens," Nichols said.

"We make this the most important thing in their lives," he said of the training. "We just make this a big hide and seek game for them."

Nichols talked of his late dog Remi, who worked on a manslaughter investigation in New Jersey a couple of years ago.

"She found the murderer," he said. "She went right to the hotel he walked into."

Lou Battistella is an administrative instructor and seminar coordinator for NPBA.

He's also a K-9 handler for a bloodhound team affiliated with the Greensburg Volunteer Fire Department and Westmoreland County Sheriff's Office in Pennsylvania.

"We're considered first responders," Battistella said and added that his daughter, Elysia Battistella, 29, is also a K-9 handler in Greensburg.

He described scent articles used to prompt the dogs, such as clothing, biological fluids and credit cards.

After the bloodhounds understand the scent, they follow its trail.

"We've used shell casings," Lou Battistella said of ammunition a perpetrator touched. "You leave a scent behind. It's skin cells, which fall to the ground."

Like the Battistellas, Bud Mertz is a handler for the Greensburg team.

Mertz is also an instructor, and member of the finance committee for NPBA.

Despite multiple scents at any given location, a bloodhound is able to focus on the smell it's asked to track, he said.

"There's scent everywhere," Mertz said and added that the dog's nose can differentiate between background and primary fragrances.

"It's just a powerful, powerful tool," he said of the dog's sense of smell.

The bloodhounds are very docile dogs that want to please their handlers, Mertz said.

"When they make the find, they're looking for that loving at the end. That's a huge reward for them," he said. "They're also the ones who snuggle up with you on the couch at night."

Teresa McMinn is a reporter for the Cumberland Times-News. She can be reached at 304-639-2371.