Gem

by Jane B. Mason

  In fact, a Labrador was the dog Pedro was already imagining for her. After losing her last SAR dog, a Newfoundland named Bluto, she would need a different breed … but one with a huge heart and possibly webbed feet!

  After reading the answer to one of his standard handler interview questions—Tell me about a typical day in your life—Pedro was certain that Laurel needed a water dog, which would probably make finding the right pup a little trickier than usual.

  Water training was not something the Sterling ranch often did, for two reasons: (1) Although their training areas included a crashed airplane, an overturned bus, and a fake earthquake site, they did not have a lake or even a pond on the ranch. And (2) it wasn’t easy to find dogs who were as comfortable in water as they were on land.

  Still, he was determined to find Laurel the right partner no matter how long it took, which was what he’d told her in his morning’s email.

  Pedro quickened his step and let his thoughts unroll. Normally he cautioned handlers not to rush back in with a new dog too quickly after their partner had passed or retired. Laurel, though, seemed to have taken this advice already. She’d written that it had been two years since she’d lost Bluto, who had died suddenly of an undetected heart problem. Bluto’s sudden death had caught her off guard and, she confessed, thrown her into a bit of a tailspin.

  After two years I finally feel like myself again, mostly, she’d typed in her email. There is still a big piece of me that feels like it’s missing. I am not trying to replace Bluto … there was only one of him. But it’s time for me to find a new dog partner. I hope you can help.

  He appreciated that Laurel would not be entering into a new canine partnership lightly. From her messages and a single phone conversation, he could tell she was smart, capable, and kind. Pedro hoped he could help.

  Standing on the big training ground, it was difficult to determine who was most excited. Morgan, who was always thrilled to be out and working with dogs, was sporting a huge grin. Juniper was practically vibrating. And Gem was wagging so hard her whole back end was swaying from side to side. Roxanne beamed at all of them, shook her head, and wondered what she had gotten herself into. Had it really been her idea to work with two kids and a dog all at once? Of course, Morgan was as good as any of the paid assistants who worked on the ranch. Roxanne wondered if the magic touch Morgan had with dogs would also work on her little sister.

  “I’m so glad we’re on break!” Juniper said, hopping from one foot to the other. Her excited movements were getting Gem excited, too. She let out a woof.

  “It’s great timing,” Roxanne agreed. The girls had a week off for Thanksgiving—time enough to give both Juniper and Gem a crash course. Today they would be starting with some repetitive obedience stuff and a little tracking. Roxanne wanted to see just how strong a scenter Gem was, and also wanted to demonstrate for Pedro what she suspected Gem’s best talents to be.

  She waved to Pedro before he stepped inside the observation trailer that was situated on the edge of the training grounds. The portable structure had a large window along one side that would allow Pedro to watch everything without being a distraction. Roxanne knew Pedro would be paying attention to how Gem interacted with people. Fortunately, despite being surrendered to a shelter twice, trust did not seem to be an issue for Gem. Still, being able to trust didn’t always translate into strong bonds and connections.

  “Let’s start with basic obedience commands,” Roxanne said. Morgan gave a nod and started to instruct Juniper on the proper hand signals to accompany her requests of Gem.

  “I knooooow,” the younger girl said, rolling her eyes.

  “Okay, show me.” Morgan was all business.

  Juniper deftly ran through a series of commands with Gem: “sit,” “stay,” “come,” and “down.”

  Growing up on a dog-training ranch had worn off on Juniper more than either Roxanne or Morgan would have thought. The youngest Sterling knew quite a lot! There was no denying that the girl and the dog were both impressive.

  “Don’t give her too much praise—it’ll go to her head,” Morgan whispered while Juniper kept Gem in a sit/stay.

  Roxanne squinted, perplexed. It really wasn’t possible to overpraise a dog. Then she chuckled, realizing that Morgan was talking about her little sister! The trainer swallowed her laughter and gave a quick nod.

  “You’re doing great,” she said loudly to the whole team. “Let’s try something new. Can I borrow your scarf, Juniper?” The new assistant untied the bandanna she’d been wearing over her braids and held it out to Roxanne.

  “Do you think she’s ready to find?” Morgan asked, looking surprised.

  “Only one way to find out!” Roxanne answered with a smirk. Morgan grinned and pulled Juniper aside to explain what they were going to do next while Roxanne led Gem in the other direction.

  Gem looked up at Roxanne as she trotted alongside her. She liked playing with this tall lady and the girls. She liked their games. Even when they played the same thing over and over! She was ready for whatever was coming next. Roxanne walked with Gem for a long time without asking her to do anything, but Gem could tell something was coming. She could tell by the way Roxanne kept glancing around, the slight smile on her face and the way she stood extra straight. And she could tell by her excited smell. Finally, Roxanne asked Gem to heel, and then sit. She squatted down and held the square of fabric in her hand near Gem’s nose. Gem sniffed it: Juniper! It smelled just like her favorite girl.

  “Good!” Roxanne praised Gem when she buried her nose in the cloth. The tall lady straightened. Gem sat still and stared up at her expectantly. She wanted to wriggle but sat still and waited.

  “Now. Find!” Roxanne said firmly.

  Gem recognized Roxanne’s command voice, but the command was not one Gem had heard before.

  Roxanne held out the fabric and a fresh burst of “Juniper” wafted into Gem’s nose. “Find,” Roxanne repeated.

  Inside Gem’s head, something clicked. Roxanne was asking her to go after the smell. She wanted her to “find” Juniper!

  The clever dog was off like a shot. She zigzagged across the field. She held her snout up high, pulling smells from the air, and pushed it back to the ground, where she could smell Juniper’s tracks. She ran back and forth, picking up the path and losing it and finding it once more. The smells grew stronger and stronger until—

  “Gem! You did it! You found me, Gem!” Juniper popped out from behind a fallen tree in the woods on the edge of the ranch. The girl and the dog jumped all over each other in celebration.

  “That was super fast, wasn’t it?” Morgan asked Roxanne in a side whisper as they approached. Roxanne nodded. She hadn’t been timing, but she could safely say that was one of the most successful and speediest first finds she’d seen in a long time. Maybe ever.

  Pedro jogged up a moment later. He was wearing a big grin that grew bigger when he saw Gem playing tug with her “victim,” Juniper. “Looks like your instincts were right on this one, Rox,” he said, impressed. “Her nose is exceptional!”

  “Juniper’s or Gem’s?” Morgan cracked.

  “Both!” Roxanne replied, not joking.

  “I think you mean my instincts, Pedro!” Juniper yelled, having heard. “I picked her!”

  Pedro called the dog to him and knelt down to pet her. Gem greeted him easily though they hadn’t met before, and within seconds was leaning in for more rubbing and admiration. “I can’t wait to see what else this dog can do,” Pedro told the training team.

  “Gem can do anything!” Juniper bragged.

  Pedro stroked his beard thoughtfully for a second. Something was coming together in his head … clicking into place. “You might be right about that, Juniper Sterling!”

  “Nothing like an impromptu field trip!” Roxanne called when Pedro pulled up the next morning in a white van towing a trailer.

  Pedro leaned out the driver’s window and patted the door emblazoned with the Sterling Center logo. “Le
t’s get this show on the road!” He was smiling so widely he looked like a kid in a candy store.

  When Pedro had suggested they take a water trip with dogs the day before, Roxanne thought he was joking. It was November! They were short-staffed because their assistant trainer Eloise was away, spending the holiday with her family, and water trips were a little bit complicated. But Roxanne had been working with Pedro long enough to know that everything he did, he did with intention. He hadn’t made the suggestion lightly, and there were extra Sterlings around since the kids were on break. So she’d agreed.

  Martin got out of the passenger side of the van and checked the tow hitch one last time. He’d been surprised, too, when Pedro had requested that the van and the Zodiac both be prepped for an outing. They didn’t use the inflatable boat too often, and Martin hadn’t been anticipating any water training until spring, so it was flat, dry, and packed up tight in one of the ranch’s storage buildings.

  The Sterling crew liked to expose the dogs to water at least once during the course of their time on the ranch, and sometimes they discovered that a dog had a real talent for water searches. Dogs with this kind of skill could actually smell things hundreds of feet below the surface! Martin, who was always game for a little time away from his maintenance tasks, hadn’t hesitated when he got the request for a water field trip. He was more than happy to get the gear ready and make sure the training team had what they needed. If it were possible, he would have dug them a lake on the ranch or created a slope covered in fake snow for avalanche searching! He took real pride in making sure that the ranch provided the best, most realistic training facilities available.

  Roxanne opened the sliding side door on the van and called back toward the pavilion. “Who’s ready?”

  The door burst open, and Juniper, Morgan, and Forrest emerged with three dogs wearing vests, leashes, and massive doggy grins.

  The pups—Captain, Sally, and Gem—had no idea where they were headed, but they could pick up on the excitement of the humans and eagerly jumped into the waiting vehicle, tongues lolling.

  “This is good for them,” Morgan said to Juniper when everyone was buckled in, including the dogs, who had tether points on the side of the van.

  “SAR dogs have to be comfortable in all modes of transportation,” Roxanne added.

  “Planes, trains, and automobiles,” Forrest said, keeping one hand on Sally, a mixed spaniel with brown spots on white fur, floppy ears, and deep brown eyes. “And don’t forget helicopters.”

  “Or boats,” Juniper said, getting the last word and letting them all know that she didn’t need schooling. Forrest scowled.

  While he drove, Pedro listened to Roxanne go over exactly what the rest of the day would entail. The dogs would be introduced to the lake and invited to explore, and then they would put them on the Zodiac. The small craft was tippy, and some dogs would refuse. Once people and dogs were loaded, they would take them out to deep water and have the dogs jump overboard, swim, and come back aboard. In shallower water, the team would test to see if the dogs could locate simple sunken objects.

  Pedro felt the excitement fizzing like soda in his chest and pulled a root beer Dum Dum lollipop out of his pocket to suck on. In spite of his intuition telling him that Gem might be the water dog he was looking for and the perfect dog for Laurel Leon, he knew it wasn’t a good idea to get his hopes up. Gem’s response to water and the weeks and weeks of training ahead would tell him. All he could do was observe. He crunched down on the lollipop and shattered it in one bite.

  “Well, at least we’ve got the place to ourselves,” Martin announced when they pulled into the deserted parking lot next to a small lake. “No wait for the ramp!”

  Roxanne and the kids unloaded the dogs first. Then Pedro backed the trailer down the boat ramp and he and Martin launched and tied the Zodiac before taking the kayak off the roof rack and parking the vehicle in the lot.

  The moment that Captain—a burly black Labrador—saw the lake, he wanted to get in. He whined and pulled at his leash. “Let’s let them explore,” Roxanne said, giving the okay to turn the dogs loose. Captain raced into the water immediately, undeterred by the fifty-five-degree temperature, and then ran back onto shore to shake, spraying Roxanne and the kids with cold droplets.

  Gem hadn’t been to a lake before. She walked to the water’s edge cautiously, sniffed, and lapped up a bit of lake water. Then she waded in, wagging. Water was fun! She dug at it, splashing herself in the face and sending Juniper into peals of giggles. “You can’t dig a hole in the water, Gem!”

  Only Sally seemed uneasy, regarding the lake skeptically. Morgan felt for her—she understood that new things weren’t always easy. She ran a hand over the reluctant dog’s back and came up with a handful of fur—a sure sign of nervousness. “It’s okay, Sally,” Morgan reassured the spotted dog, coaxing her closer so she could see that water wouldn’t hurt her.

  Pedro, Roxanne, and Martin stood back, watching the kids and dogs. It was nice to let them discover the area without a strict agenda. Pedro’s eyes were glued on Gem, and the flicker of hope inside him was glowing brighter.

  When the dogs—even Sally—were comfortable on the shore, Roxanne called them to the Zodiac. She climbed into the big gray-and-yellow rubber-sided boat and stood beside the engine. Then she called each dog, one by one, to get in with her. Captain and Gem both bounded aboard, unfazed by the motion of the boat in the water, and Forrest and Juniper clambered on after them. Sally stood shaking on the beach.

  “It’s okay,” Morgan coaxed her. She got on first and patted her leg. Slowly, a quivering Sally followed. As quickly as she was in the boat, she was back out. Morgan followed the reluctant spaniel, clipped a leash on her, and coaxed Sally back aboard. The lead seemed to make her feel slightly more secure.

  With Pedro in the kayak and Martin at the tiller, the crew motored toward deeper water.

  The scene from Pedro’s seat in the sleek orange kayak was almost comical. He was too far away to hear what everyone was saying, but he could see exactly what was going on. Captain began barking loudly, broadcasting his delight and going from one side of the boat to the other as if deciding where to jump overboard. His excitement was too big to be contained! Sally stayed beside Morgan, and it was clear the girl was working double time to help the dog feel less afraid, petting and talking to her. At the front of the boat, with her nose up and red-gold chest puffed, Gem stood with her two front paws on the prow. She looked proud enough to be a hood ornament!

  Martin steered them into a small cove, and Roxanne threw a float for the dogs to retrieve. Captain and Gem jumped fearlessly from the Zodiac.

  “Gem’s doing the dog paddle!” Juniper shouted, clapping her hands.

  Forrest nudged her. “What’d you expect, the backstroke?” Juniper smacked his arm, and Martin quickly intervened before one of his kids ended up in the water with the dogs! The dogs did a few more retrievals, and then, after much effort and a lot of wriggling and hauling, they were back in the boat. With everyone decidedly damp and chilly, they turned back toward the docks. Sally remained curled in the bottom of the Zodiac. She had stopped shaking, but it was clear she’d never venture into the lake. On the way back, they passed a few boats that had launched since they first set out. Captain barked hellos, while Gem wagged her tail like it was the flag on a ship. Poor Sally started shaking all over again when the rocking increased.

  “Not for you, huh, Sally?” Morgan stroked her back gently. “That’s okay,” she said.

  Back onshore, Roxanne and Martin yanked the boat up onto the ramp, and Pedro, who had already taken the kayak out of the water, maneuvered the trailer to the edge of the launch. While they secured the crafts, Juniper, Morgan, and Forrest took the pups back to the small beach that, come summer, would be crowded with towels and beach chairs and swimmers, but for now stood empty. Sally’s tail had come back up as soon as her paws hit solid ground. Gem was happy to be on the beach, too. She snuffled her nose in the loose pe
bbly dirt. She pawed at it. This strange soft soil was nice, almost as nice as the water. It would be good to dig in. She could dig way down and make a huge hole filled with all kinds of new smells. But she was so tired! She felt drained and flopped down on the sand while Captain charged back into the lake after a stick.

  Juniper plopped onto the dirt beside Gem and reached over to pet her soft head. It had been an exciting day, but she’d never seen Gem too tired to dig. The golden enjoyed a good dirt-flying session more than any dog she’d ever seen. Juniper dug a little with her hand to demonstrate that this was a good spot for digging. Gem closed her eyes.

  The golden retriever lay in the sand until it was time to get into the van. Then she hopped in gingerly, curled up, and tucked her nose under her tail.

  “Long day?” Pedro asked as he leaned down to give the damp dog a pat.

  But Gem was already asleep.

  Roxanne sat beside Pedro in the passenger seat on the drive back to the ranch. They always appreciated an opportunity to compare notes after training sessions, and Pedro was perpetually amazed at how much more Roxanne noticed during these excursions than he did. Getting away from the ranch brought her already-keen dog senses to an even higher level. Pedro didn’t need Roxanne to tell him that Sally wasn’t going to work with the Coast Guard, but Pedro thought Captain and Gem both showed clear signs of being great water dogs … especially Captain!

  “Yep, I’d say he liked it,” Roxanne said, grinning. They both knew liking water didn’t necessarily mean that a dog would be trained for water rescues. But it was something to put on the dog’s résumé. It might lead to future training, or it might not.

  “And what about Gem?” Pedro asked. Though he admired Captain’s exuberance, he liked Gem’s calm enthusiasm a little better, at least for the job he had in mind. She didn’t have to do water rescues, per se; she just needed to be comfortable in aquatic environments. “You think she’d be okay working near, say, the ocean?”