Dogs On duty: Volunteer K-9 Outfit Assists Public Agencies

FARGO — Volunteer K-9 Ziva is ready to work. She eagerly lifts her front right paw to allow her handler, Nate Dutt, to slip on her harness. Once she receives her orders, she’s off, her attached bell ringing wildly.

Ammie Zachow with Tazer and Nate Dutt with Ziva and Sully are part of the nonprofit MinnKota Search and Rescue that participate in tracking, rescue and recovery missions. David Samson / The Forum
Ammie Zachow with Tazer and Nate Dutt with Ziva and Sully are part of the nonprofit MinnKota Search and Rescue that participate in tracking, rescue and recovery missions.
David Samson / The Forum

The little Belgian Malinois zigzags through a designated area of Island Park downtown, lying down next to each item she finds, proudly awaiting her reward.

Ziva is one of four certified dogs on the all-volunteer MinnKota Search and Rescue outfit, founded last year by Dutt and Ammie Zachow. They met at a seminar of their certifying body, the North American Police Work Dog Association, in Little Falls, Minn.

“I always wanted to be able to give back to my community, and I love dogs, and I love working with dogs,” Zachow says. “I wanted to do it for a long time, but I didn’t know how to go about it.”

Ziva, Sully, Tazer and Maya train at least 12 hours a week with Dutt, Zachow and handler Tyler Thomas so they’re always ready to assist public agencies in the region with search, rescue and recovery missions. Ziva and 110-pound German shepherd Tazer are certified in tracking and article search, Malinois Sully in human remains detection, and Ziva’s sister Maya in area search and article search.

“We haven’t done a 24-hour search, but we have done sun-up to sundown,” Zachow says.

“And then we went back out the next day,” Dutt adds.

They make clear that their dogs are not in competition with police dogs; rather, their goal is to help when help is needed. Though Dutt and Zachow can’t discuss the individual cases they’ve worked on with their canine companions, they say they’ve worked on cases as far away as the St. Cloud, Minn., area.

“We’re fortunate enough to not have that many missing person cases in our local and regional area,” Dutt says. “But they (public agencies) know we’re always ready to help.”

Dutt, a paramedic with F-M Ambulance, and Zachow, a stay-at-home parent of a 16-year-old and a 12-year-old, have both always loved dogs and wanted to work with them. They saw a need for additional K-9 resources and decided to fill it themselves. They’re completely responsible for the dogs and their expenses.

Training starts young, with an exercise called “puppy runaways.” Tazer was just 4 months old when Zachow took him to his first NAPWDA seminar. Tazer still enjoys puppy runaways and leaps with joy for his favorite squeaky toy before being given directions.

Tazer, like his MinnKota teammate Ziva, seems to enjoy his job. After sniffing a pair of Dutt’s gloves dropped in the grass, Tazer quickly leads Zachow to Dutt’s hiding spot, his tail wagging.

“German shepherds and Malinois like to ‘cheat’ when they’re tracking,” Dutt says. “They don’t always go footstep by footstep like a bloodhound does. They’ll do air-scenting as well, so they’ll pick their nose up and sniff the air to cheat. They’re going to use all their resources to make it go as quickly for them as possible.”

Special thanks to Meredith Holt and Info Rum

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