Border collie in training for Pine Mountain rescue
By RON DEUTER, Sports WriterArticle Photos
IRON MOUNTAIN - Young or old, beginner or veteran, local or vacationer, the ski lift at Pine Mountain sees all types during a typical ski season.
But how about a furry, four-legged rider?
Well, if you head out to the hill this season, you might catch a glimpse of Mia, a nine-month old border collie who is just beginning training to become a ski rescue dog.
Mia's owner Bryan Laurila, one of the volunteers on Pine Mountain's Ski Patrol, didn't have rescue dog in mind for Mia when he got her. But he figured he spends enough time on the hill, why not try to train Mia to help?
His goal is train her to be a search and rescue dog like the ones who assist with avalanche victims in the mountains out west .
Just a puppy, it's too soon to tell if and when Mia will make the grade. But Laurila is optimistic he has the right breed for the job.
Border collies, originally bred in Great Britain as herders, rank at the higher end of the aptitude scale.
"She's a working dog and she needs a job to do," he said. "If you have a working dog you have to give them a job to do. Otherwise, they'll find a job on their own, and you probably won't like it tearing up furniture or whatever.
"They have all that energy and they need a way to channel it."
Laurila's goal this ski season is to get Mia used to riding the lift and running down the hill. Mia has her own ski lift season pass and carries a backpack filled with supplies such as band-aids and tape.
"Right now she thinks her job is to just run down the hill," Laurila said. "She's really good with that until she gets a whiff of a deer or rabbit, then she wants to put on the brakes."
Like any puppy, Mia is easily distracted.
But in time, Laurila thinks that will change. He's enlisted the help of a friend who works for the state police K-9 unit.
"You have to first get the dog acclimated to different environments and people, different noises and things like that so that it doesn't bother her," Laurila said. "Then when you go to train her, you can get her to concentrate on what you want her to do."
It will be several months before Laurila begins to officially train Mia in search and rescue techniques, but for now he is encouraged with how she has taken to the hill.
"At first she was a little skiddish of all the noises, but now it doesn't seem to bother her," he said. "Just being on the hill, she does really good. She rides the chair lift no problem. Actually, she enjoys it. She looks forward to jumping off at the end and enjoys looking at all the people."
One of the first nights, Laurila had Mia with him, a skier suffered an accident. Laurila said Mia "did very well" as the patrol attended to the victim and carted him down the hill.
"The two biggest things right now are to put her in a down state and to get her to come when I call her," he said. "She's still at a point, being a puppy, she wants to chase things like deer."
Mia can been seen most weekends at Pine Mountain.
