Somewhere between hunting for gold in Latin America as a geologist and getting married to a new husband, thirty-three-year-old Susan Purvis loses her way.Susan comes to believe that a puppy and working on ski patrol at the last great ski town in Colorado will improve her life. When she learns about avalanches that bury people without warning, she challenges herself: “What if I teach a dog to save … dog to save lives?” This quest propels her to train the best possible search dog, vowing to never leave anyone behind.
With no clue how to care for a houseplant, let alone a dog, she chooses a five-week-old Labrador retriever, Tasha. With the face of a baby bear and the temperament of an NFL linebacker, Tasha constantly tests Susan’s determination to transform her into a rescue dog. Susan and Tasha jockey for alpha position as they pursue certification in avalanche, water, and wilderness recovery. Susan eventually learns to truly communicate with Tasha by seeing the world through her dog’s nose.
As the first female team in a male-dominated search-and-rescue community, they face resistance at every turn. They won’t get paid even a bag of kibble for their efforts, yet they launch dozens of missions to rescue the missing or recover the remains of victims of nature and crime.
Training with Tasha in the field to find, recover, and rescue the lost became Susan’s passion. But it was also her circumstance—she was in many ways as lost as anyone she ever pulled out of an avalanche or found huddled in the woods. “Lostness” doesn’t only apply to losing the trail. People can get lost in a relationship, a business, or a life. Susan was convinced that only happened to other people, until Tasha and a life in the mountains taught her otherwise.
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Unnecessarily gruesome details about “cadavers”, or deceased humans, Brutal.
If you are a dog lover, this is a real education in how capable a dog can be. I wasn’t sure what to make of the author and her motivation to “help others”.
Good insight into rescue dogs and the training that they endure with their owners/trainers. The personal relationship struggles of the author seem to be shared honestly.
I liked this book; however the author came across as being a bit self absorbed and a little high on herself.
But I enjoyed her journey with her dog and the long involved process of training she tackled. She was a determined young lady .
I found this book to be very interesting. I actually only bought it because the author and I share names. I really did not know much about the training and use of search dogs but I certainly do now. This is a well-written account of the work and time required to train an animal to seek a missing person. Although I sometimes found the trainer tedious, I never lost interest in Tasha, the search dog. This book would make a great movie!
Author did too much complaining about treatment from others. Seemed to be a book about the author’s feelings of discontent, not about the dog and the training.
A very interesting book, tells how much it takes to train a rescue dog, gives actual rescue accounts,, and explains how a dog trained for one type of rescue can’t just be called in for another type of rescue they haven’t been trained for. Great book.
I enjoyed learning about the training and exploits of search & rescue dogs and their handlers. They can do amazing things!
A little repetitious, but a good read
Susan Purvis gets a Labrador puppy intent on training it to be a search and rescue dog. She has no experience at all but with a lot of trial and error along with some mentors she succeeds. She becomes very successful at all types of rescue but loses her husband along the way. This is a true story and showcases what dogs can do when trained.
A great book about what it takes to train a dog (and his owner) to search and rescue people, primarily after avalanches, but also in the wilderness. The 15 year saga of of their relationship from puppy to elder dog.
People and their dog stories are always a good combination, and this one is good because of the inspirational nature of the task at hand, and because of the writer’s determination in gaining the certification to look for people buried in the snow.
Learned a lot from this book. It was very informative but also kept my interest throughout.
I just finished reading another autobiography and I really wanted to read this book. But the author is so self-centered, knows nothing about training dogs. I get that she recognizes that. But her attitude towards the dog, her comments at their first training exercises with others. I finally just stopped reading it because I could not get past how self-centered and unaware she was. And I swear if I have to read another book about how terrible somebody’s husband is and how she’s barely putting up with them…
The baseline narrative is interesting, but the author can not get out of her own way. I have a long SAR background, so the subject matter is of interest. I wince when I find SAR folks who live day to day with a hero complex (count the “can’t wait to save a life” and “we’re one of the few elite…” references). So many SAR volunteers of all types of skills show up, find out their job, carry it out without the grandstanding, internal or worse, expressed at the scene. The author portrays a high disregard for her role in searches, seemingly unsatisfied with all efforts but her own making this a tough read. RIP Tasha…you crushed it in spite of your handler’s ego.
every dog lover should read this it was very informative and clearly explained the diligent work and care that goes into creating a rescue dog and people should have a better appreciation for them. an interesting life of the beaten path well written and described.
I sat down and read this every night after work until I had to go to bed. As a dog lover and one who has a service dog in the family, I felt as if I were right there with Susan and her dog Tasha. Loved Tasha. Cried when she died.
A wonderful biography of a woman and her Search & Rescue dog, and how this dog changed her life in so many unexpected ways.
I found it interesting to learn about search-and-rescue dogs and the seemingly endless permutations thereof, but I think the author could have left out a few of her “missions” and still imparted plenty of information. Her constant complaining about how she is treated by her SAR community is tiresome and leads one to conclude that there is probably a good reason for her lack of popularity. If you are a dog person and want to learn about SAR, go ahead and read this book. If you’re looking for entertainment, look elsewhere.
The search and rescue info was very interesting. Sue’s personal trials were challenging but for me the handwriting was on the wall way early that she was in an emotionally abusive relationship and I wanted to say “let it go.”