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Alice and Doug Stanley of Spotsylvania are coordinating 33 search dogs and their handlers who will march in the presidential inaugural parade. The Stanleys' dogs won't take part.
Alice and Doug Stanley of Spotsylvania founded the first Virginia association for rescue dogs, and have been training German Shepherds for many years. |
Most of the people going to Thursday's presidential inauguration are worrying over last-minute details like hotel reservations and inaugural-ball tickets.
But Spotsylvania County resident Alice Stanley's main concern is making sure 33 German shepherds and their handlers are ready for a 42-minute march down Pennsylvania Avenue.
On a whim a couple of months ago, Stanley submitted an online application for the Virginia Search and Rescue Dog Association to march in the inaugural parade.
The group, which she and her husband founded more than 25 years ago, will march with dogs from its sister organizations around the country, all of which are part of the American Rescue Dog Association.
"I thought, 'Gee, wouldn't 30 or so German shepherds marching down Pennsylvania Avenue look cool?'" she said.
Stanley also thought it was time that the rescue dogs her group trains--some of which searched for victims at the World Trade Center and the Pentagon after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks--got a little recognition.
Stanley wasn't sure her request would yield anything until one morning in December, when an inaugural organizer called to tell her she had about a month to get a group of search dogs and owners from around the United States and Canada ready for the parade.
Since then, Stanley has been busy coordinating the details with fellow search-dog trainers in Maryland, Illinois, Nova Scotia and other places.
They needed a banner with the group's name and logo, hard hats and jackets for the handlers, and orange rescue vests for the German shepherds.
The dogs and their owners will travel to Alexandria on Wednesday--search dogs have the privilege of riding with their owners on commercial airline flights--and they'll ride in chartered school buses to the parade's starting point in Washington.
"I can't wait to see the faces on people when they see a bunch of German shepherds hanging out the side of these school buses," Stanley said.
Although all of these dogs have been in parades at some point, Stanley worries a little that they've never marched in formation together before.
Still, she said, "The dogs worry me less than the humans. We are not a drill team. We're search people."
Stanley and her husband, Doug, have been training German shepherds since the 1970s to detect the airborne scent of humans.
The technique is called "air scenting," and unlike sniffing a trail on the ground, it allows dogs to track humans no matter how long they've been missing, even if nothing but bones remain.
The Stanleys founded the Virginia Search and Rescue Dog Association in 1977. Since the group's first rescue in 1978--of a Roanoke woman who'd gotten lost in the woods after wandering away from an institution--its reputation has grown as a volunteer group ready to assist state and local authorities.
Bob Spieldenner, a spokesman for the Virginia Department of Emergency Management, said the group has had a formal agreement to assist in searches around the state since 1989. Last year, the state agency called on the group's dogs 18 times.
Alice Stanley has traveled around the country giving search-dog seminars. She helped write a book on the subject and even shared her experiences with TV viewers on "The Oprah Winfrey Show" in 1990.
These days, the Stanleys have cut back on their activities with the search group. They still lead two of their four German shepherds through regular training exercises in a grassy field behind their home, but devote more time to the miniature horse farm they run on 91/2 acres near Thornburg.
One of their horses, Blossom, is pregnant, due in late January. Alice Stanley is hoping the mare can hold off on giving birth until after the inauguration.
Since she's been so focused on bringing in dogs and owners from around the country, Stanley doesn't plan to march her own dogs in the parade.
"If they invite us back in four years, then someone else can run it, and we'll take our dogs," she said.
To reach EMILY BATTLE: 540/374-5413 ebattle@freelancestar.com
