Worth the Trouble
March 13, 2002

People have thrown rocks and yelled at her. She even ended up renting a small beat-up trailer on a Castro Valley ranch because she couldn’t find any place that would allow her to live with pit bulls.

And despite the trouble, Kristine Crawford will load her pit bull search-and-rescue dogs into her 4X4 truck at any hour, no matter how far away, to help find a missing person. Crawford owns three pit bulls. One is trained in specialized search-and-rescue techniques such as cadaver and area search and the other two are finishing up their training in area as well as trailing a specific scent. They are also trained to navigate boulders, rugged and steep terrain in the forest and rubble in the city, Crawford said.

Crawford is a member of the California Search and Rescue Dog Association, a volunteer group of SAR Dog handlers who are on call to help find missing persons anywhere in the state. She is also an Operations Lieutenant for the Alameda County Sheriff Search and Rescue Unit.

Last month, Crawford was called to Pacifica, here in San Mateo County, to help find a missing 85-year-old man with Alzheimer’s disease. At 2 a.m., Crawford and her teammates had been searching for an hour when another dog team found the man 600 feet down a ravine entangled in some brush. Crawford assisted with the extrication of the man because he would not have survived the night as it was very cold out.

However, the negative stigma attached to pit bulls causes Crawford to have her share of unpleasant moments as well. Once, Crawford was helping a search-and-rescue effort in the Sierra Nevadas when, after driving several hours to get there a sheriff’s deputy pulled a gun on Dakota, her primary search-and-rescue dog. “He said, ‘That’s a vicious dog. You need to put him back in the truck.’ Then a deputy from another county who had worked with me told him to holster his weapon and thank his lucky stars we were here to help because Dakota is one damn good search dog,” she said.

In fact, Crawford said the typical characteristics of a pit bull make them great search-and-rescue dogs. Pit bulls are courageous, intelligent, agile, social and extremely focused. “Whatever they do, they do to the best of their ability,” she said.

Scott Delucchi, spokesperson for the Peninsula Humane Society, said pit bulls are definitely a working dog and they can also be aggressive with other dogs. However, he said with the increased media attention, there’s a misconception that dog bites are on the rise.

Delucchi also said much of pit bulls’ reputation depends on their owners. “Different types of people want to have pit bulls,” Delucchi said. “Sometimes they have a macho mentality and they want to have an aggressive dog,”

Crawford, a 40-year-old woman who moved to the Bay Area from Minnesota 10 years ago, may be tough, but she’s
anything but macho. Crawford wants to have pit bulls because they help her save lives.

Crawford has been training pit bulls professionally for sixteen years, and pit bull SAR dogs for 6 years, ever since she saved Cheyenne from being euthanized. Crawford adopted Cheyenne because she was going to be euthanized, not because of her behaviour or temperment, but simply because of the type of breed she was. Crawford was battling a severe illness at the time and Cheyenne, now 6 years old, was instrumental in Crawford's recovery.

Crawford adopted now 5-year-old Dakota when she was 6 weeks old and was rescued from a dog-fighting ring. Since then, Dakota has become the star of her crew. Her third dog is Tahoe, a 14-month-old who is the youngest dog in the group.

Even though the dogs usually sport their “search dog” vests in public, Crawford said people have gotten so angry at her for having the breed that while walking her dogs (on leash, of course) they have thrown rocks at her and screamed that she is a disgrace to society for owning that breed. Once, she discovered that someone had sprinkled rat poison in her car after placing a nasty note about pit bulls on her car. Another time, she was training with Dakota on a golf course that was closed when a trespassing golfer hit the dog over the head with a golf club. “He said, ‘All I saw was a pit bull coming at me,’ ” she said. She was even wearing her big bright orange search dog vest.

Crawford is committed to breaking the stigma attached to the breed and often brings all three dogs to schools, hospitals and nursing homes. "The visits to schools are extremely important, Crawford said, because with our Safety Around Dogs program we are teaching children how to behave around dogs and what to do in the event of an attack." Most importantly, she said children should not run because that may provoke the predatory instinct. If attacked, Crawford said it’s critical to remain still and cover the neck and head.

Crawford said it's hard but rewarding when visiting nursing homes. There are some that go days and sometimes weeks without visitors. To the lonely, Crawford said, her dogs make a difference despite the breed's bad reputation.

“They may not say a word, but you see their eyes light up and a hint of a smile, and you know you've made a difference,” she said.