They’re quite the team.
Parks Canada dog handler Mike Henderson and search dog Cazz have been working together for five years, tracking down missing people, searching for skiers, snowshoers or climbers buried in avalanches, looking for wildlife poachers and working with the RCMP.
Henderson, a warden whose job falls within Parks Canada’s law enforcement branch, and the six-year-old Czech shepherd dog he works with, recently received Parks Canada’s CEO Award for Exemplary Service.
“I was pretty stoked for sure,” said Henderson, who has been a dog handler for Banff, Yoho and Kootenay national parks for the past 16 years. “This does the dog program a lot of good because it shows this is a really good program.”
Cazz came out of the RCMP’s dog breeding program. Henderson has trained him for law enforcement duties, as well as for the park’s visitor safety program. They are often recruited to assist other agencies, including in Kananaskis Country, in searches for lost and injured people.
The pair also helps out RCMP in Banff and Lake Louise on drug and evidence searches when called on, or other police cases.
This CEO award stems from a specific incident last November, when Henderson and Cazz were called to help RCMP search for a man who smashed a stolen vehicle through the wildlife fence on the Trans-Canada Highway near Redearth Creek – and then bolted.
Police were quick to set up a containment area, but it ended up being a six-kilometre track over an hour-and-a-half.
“That’s the longest track we’ve ever done. He did a great job. When you think about it, he’s working his nose for six kilometres through the forest,” Henderson said.
“There were a couple of times where the guy was trying to be sneaky and crossed logs and creeks – but Cazz picked him up.”
It was a chilly day, about -5 C, considered perfect tracking conditions for Cazz trying to pick up the fleeing man’s scent.
When they finally caught up with him, the man was hiding beneath a spruce tree on an ice shelf at a fairly nasty section of the Bow River, with deep water and a bunch of sweepers.
They called him out – but then he ran across the ice shelf and bolted for the open river.
“He was going to try and swim the Bow in November,” Henderson said.
“It was one of those scenarios where you’re thinking, ‘whatever you’re going to do, don’t do it’, but he was running.”
As the man fled, Cazz was let loose and got hold of the man by the leg in the shallows, just before the deep part of the river.
Henderson wrestled him back onto the ice.
“The ice actually broke and then he gave up because he was face down in the water. I was squishing him and Cazz was biting him in the calf,” said Henderson.
“Parks Canada doesn’t have too many bites in apprehensions, so it took a while to make sure we were all good.”
To do the job as well as they do, Henderson and Cazz have a special relationship.
“It’s very Laurel and Hardy with this guy. He’s got a heart of gold, but works hard and he gives it everything,” Henderson said. “He’s a really good dog, super social, a super happy guy, but when it comes to work he’s really switched on, so it’s a really nice balance for me.”
Cazz has successfully helped locate many people missing in the backcountry, including for a 54-year-old scrambler who was lost in the wilderness for four days last month after going missing near the summit of Mount Carnarvon in Yoho National Park.
Another recent search Henderson and Cazz were called to did not have the same happy ending.
An 11-year-old Calgary boy fell into the Yoho River near Takkakaw Falls on July 22 and tragically his body was recovered in the Kicking Horse River four days later, 13km from where he fell in.
“We hope for good outcomes, but that doesn’t always happen,” Henderson said.
Cazz has also been involved in searches for people buried in avalanches, including an inter-agency effort to find a 55-year-old Canmore man buried in an avalanche on Tent Ridge in Kananaskis Country earlier this year. The man was found dead.
In these avalanche searches, Cazz is looking for human scent coming up from beneath the snow and debris. The dog works quickly, which also means he is reducing the time search and rescue crews are in risky avalanche terrain.
“His avalanche searching is really coming together. He’s had some really tough searches, but comes up really strong,” Henderson said.
“Those endings haven’t been good and sooner or later, hopefully, we’ll have a live recovery.”
Henderson’s call out volume varies between 60 and 85 a year, with about one-third of them involving helping other agencies such as RCMP and Kananaksis Country’s search and rescue tea.
“It’s about a call and a half a week when it boils down. Some of those are multi-day searches,” Henderson said.
Henderson is thankful for Park Canada’s commitment to the dog program, but even more so for the support of his wife, Nadine Delorme, and twin 14-year-old daughters, Neve and Marike, given his job takes him away from home at a moment’s notice.
“Nadine and the girls put up with a lot and I don’t think that gets recognized sometimes,” Henderson said.
“They really like the whole notion of what we do and they like Cazz a lot, but I have a crazy schedule and sometimes I’m gone and they’re not sure when I’m coming home.”
