Bloodhound Archives - i Still Love Dogs

Watch Hero Officers Rescue a Bloodhound Trapped under a Car on Busy Freeway

During rush hour Wednesday morning, Placer County Sheriff’s Office Deputy Stan Semenuk was driving westbound on the busy I-80 in Northern California when he spotted a young Bloodhound darting across the interstate. The Bloodhound, named Ruger, somehow made it safely across all three eastbound lanes and then leaped over the center divider.

“Everybody came to a screeching halt trying to avoid hitting the dog,” Semenuk said in a video posted on the Placer County Sheriff’s Office Facebook page. “So I immediately pull over — as a K9 handler, I have a little bit of a thing for dogs — and I tried to call him over to me. I just tried to get him out of the road so he didn’t get hit.”

Semenuk could tell Ruger was terrified by the Bloodhound’s body language. “He looks at me, kind of looks all around, probably trying to find his owner or something that looks familiar to him — and then he jets out back into westbound lanes of traffic,” he said.

Unfortunately, Ruger was struck by a car. He survived, but one of his paws was pinned under a rear tire, trapping the dog.

Semenuk repositioned his patrol car and turned on the flashing lights to keep other cars away the accident scene. An off-duty California Highway Patrol (CHP) officer who saw what happened also pulled over, and the two men immediately went to work to free Ruger. As the CHP officer raised the tire using a jack from his truck. Semenuk prepared to use a leash as a makeshift collar to pull the frightened dog out from under the car.

The deputy put on heavy gloves just in case Ruger bit him, but they were unnecessary. “He was actually very, very calm,” Semenuk said. “Once I got there, I started talking to him, trying to calm the dog down. He was in a lot of pain. He was crying, he was whimpering.”

Ruger let Semenuk lift him up and carry him to the side of the freeway. “He was a super good boy,” the deputy said.

The CHP officer went on his way and Semenuk comforted Ruger until officers from Placer County Animal Services arrived — along with Ruger’s owners, according to the Sacramento Bee. It’s not known how Ruger ended up running loose on an interstate.

Ruger was transported to a local veterinary clinic for emergency treatment. What’s really amazing is that despite what he went through, the Bloodhound had no broken bones — only lacerations and road rash. He’s expected to make a full recovery.

His rescue was captured on Semenuk’s patrol car dashboard camera. As the sheriff’s office warns, it’s disturbing to watch, but worth it, since it has a happy ending.

Thank you, Deputy Semenuk and the CHP officer for saving Ruger’s life.

Photo: Placer County Sheriff’s Office

K-9 Officer Saves Kidnapped Girl Dragged through Woods

A 16-year-old girl who was kidnapped and dragged into the woods by her hair is likely alive today thanks to a Bloodhound named Deja’s amazing sense of smell.

A woman from Twin Peaks, Calif., called the police in the middle of the night Monday and said her granddaughter had been fighting with her boyfriend, 18-year-old Logan Padberg, in her home. When she asked Padberg to leave, he took her granddaughter with him.

Deputies then got a 911 call from someone saying he was awakened by a woman’s screams for help. The caller looked outside and saw a man holding a flashlight and dragging the teenager by her hair into the woods. When they arrived at the scene, the police found her purse and fresh drag marks at the scene.

Deja, a 4-year-old Bloodhound who’s a K-9 deputy with the Rancho Cucamonga Police Department, was called to the scene with her handler, Deputy Josh Stone.

“I used a piece of her clothing that contained her scent and I gave it to Deja like I always do,” Stone told KTLA. “I presented it to her and said, ‘check it.’ She smelled it and she knows who she wants to look for.”

Deja ran through the woods and stopped on the porch of a house.

Deputies did a forced entry and found Padberg and the girl inside the house. Padberg was arrested and booked on suspicion of kidnapping, domestic battery and unlawful sex with a minor, KABC reports. He was held on $250,000 bail at the San Bernardino Central Detention Center.

The girl was released to her mother — and hopefully she gave Deja a big, well-deserved hug.

“Great work by K-9 Deja and the Twin Peaks Sheriff’s Station,” wrote the Rancho Cucamonga Police Department on its Facebook page. Hear, hear!

Photo via Facebook

Dog Taking a Potty Break Ends Up Finishing Half Marathon

April Hamlin let her Bloodhound, Ludivine, out in her Elkmont, Ala., backyard the morning of Jan. 18 to take a potty break.

Or so Hamlin thought.

Two-year-old Ludivine (she was named after a character in the movie “A Good Year”) somehow managed to escape from the yard and then wandered to the starting line of Elkmont’s first-ever Trackless Train Trek Half Marathon.

Ludivine ran the 13.1 miles in about 92 minutes, finishing in seventh place.

Meanwhile, Hamlin must have assumed Ludivine was just hanging out in the backyard all that time. Imagine her surprise when someone texted her a photo of her dog wearing a medal that was awarded to everyone who finished the race.

“My first reaction was that I was embarrassed and worried she had possibly gotten in the way of the other runners,” Hamlin told Runner’s World.

Ludivine likes to wander the town on her own, Hamlin said, and most of the local residents know her. What surprised her was that Ludivine actually finished a 13.1-mile race.

“She’s laid back and friendly, so I can’t believe she ran the whole half marathon because she’s actually really lazy,” Hamlin told Runner’s World.

Ludivine’s running buddy for much of the marathon was Tim Horvath, who assumed the friendly Bloodhound belonged to someone in the race.

“She came bouncing up, and I petted her on the head,” he told Runner’s World. “I saw her collar, so I just figured she was somebody’s dog. Elkmont is a small town where everyone knows everybody, so it didn’t strike me as unusual.”

Ludivine had some distractions during the race. Horvath said that at one point, she went over to meet another dog near the course. “Later on, she went into a field with some mules and cows,” he told Runner’s World. “Then she’d come back and run around our legs. I wondered if she was going to get tired or go back to wherever her home was.”

Jim Clemons, a runner who finished in fourth place, told Runner’s World the Bloodhound “would run off to romp through streams and into yards to sniff around for a while.”

Hamlin said that once she got over the shock, she was happy for Ludivine’s accomplishment. The purpose of the half-marathon was to raise money to buy equipment and pay race fees for Elkmont High School’s cross-country and track-and-field teams.

“Because of this dog, they are getting so much publicity, and I think that’s the best part,” she told Runner’s World.

The director of the half-marathon, Gretta Armstrong, told Canadian Running, “Our little town (population: 500) is getting a kick out of the story ‘going international!'”

Photos via Facebook

K9 Bloodhound Finds Utah Boy Who Fell into Manhole

“I was really scared … I thought I was going to miss Christmas,” six-year-old Kollin Bailey of Herriman, Utah, told the Deseret News.

Kollin was flying a kite Friday afternoon when he tripped and fell about 10 feet into a manhole. “I was looking back at my kite and I fell, then I blacked out. And when I opened my eyes, I was in there,” he said.

“I saw lots of sticks. Sticks were everywhere. And I think there was something, I think it was green, it was moving down there.”

As the hours passed, his aunt, who was babysitting Kollin, became very worried and called his mom, Shara Bailey. The West Valley City Police were notified of Kollin’s disappearance around 5:30 p.m. Officers and community members spread out around the area, about 25 miles south of Salt Lake City, and searched for the missing boy.

His bike was discovered near a water retention site, but no one noticed the open manhole or heard Kollin shouting for help.

That is, until K9 search dog Copper, a 100-pound Bloodhound who, like Kollin, is also 6 years old, was put into action. After getting a whiff of Kollin’s pillow, Copper led his handler, Sgt. Shane Matheson, to the manhole.

“To him it is just a game of hide and seek,” Matheson told the Deseret News. “It’s kind of a nice change of pace from finding bad guys to actually helping a family out.”

Matheson helped lift Kollin out of the manhole. The boy suffered a broken elbow and scratches, but is otherwise okay.

Someone — not a city worker — had apparently tampered with the manhole cover and removed it.

“These need to be bolted down, something, or (have) a lock on it,” Shara said. “There are three manholes in that area where kids play all the time.”

The evening after he was rescued, Kollin, with his arm in a sling, visited the police station to give his hero a reward. He gave Matheson and Copper big hugs — along with a bone-shaped treat for Copper.

“I never thought I’d owe my son’s life to a dog,” Shara said.

On its Facebook page, the West Valley City Police Department wrote, “We are grateful for our K9 teams and their ability to make a life-saving difference, as well as the partnership with other law-enforcement agencies that puts the safety of the public at top priority.”

Despite Kollin’s worries, thanks to Copper, he won’t be missing Christmas this year. And as for Copper? Kollin’s dad, Shawn Bailey, told the Deseret News, “I was telling everybody at the hospital last night, ‘That dog is going to get the biggest bone he’s ever gotten for Christmas.'”

Photo via Facebook