I train every day. Every day is a conditioning day. We go out and we go out and walk any place for up to two or three months. Usually, I like to keep it about 3/4 of a mile to a mile. Some good exercises. That’s just conditioning. They’re athletes.”

Jerry Numon, K9 handler/instructor

GOSHEN COUNTY – Deep in the halls and gymnasiums of each high school across Goshen County, are plaques of achievement, awards and recognitions from the countless students who have pushed beyond and accomplished unthinkable athletic advancements. Records have been broken – state and regional titles taken. Weight brackets have been concurred and undefeated. Goals have been set, achieved and exceeded by students in the district for years. The star-seeking athletes aren’t just the high school students. There is a fair share of athletes in Goshen County, who graduated high school decades ago, but still compete in the Olympics, marathons and beyond. The people of Goshen County are not the only athletes the community has to offer. 

Jerry Numon, a retired law enforcement officer, has been training these unlikely athletes for 40 years. He has traveled over many states just to watch his athletes compete, well, that is when they are needed to search for a missing, lost or deceased human being. Numon, along with his team of human remains detection dogs (HRDD), has worked on many local and familiar law enforcement cases, Chance Englebert, Renee Yeargain and Serenity Dennard, all missing persons. Numon is a certified K9 Handler/Instructor with Eastern Wyoming Search and Rescue.

The Evolution of Historical HRDD explained the detection canine specializes in crime scenes, old cases, small scent sources and residual scent and they are trained to exclude fresh human scent, naturally occurring human waste and all other animal scents. According to the National Library of Medicine, the four most preferred HRDD breeds are Malinois Shepherd, German Shepherd, English Spaniel and Labrador Retriever, noting agility and stamina are the most sought-after traits by handlers in a research study. Numon, on the other hand, has Czechoslovakian and American Shepherds he works beside. 

Like any other type of athlete, HRDD train and condition as part of their everyday lives. 

“When we start, I’ve got 12 coolers out here that have human remains detection, clothes, that type of stuff. If you come in my garage and get into one of my freezers and it’s the wrong freezer, you’re going to have a rude awakening when it defrosts,” Numon said with a chuckle. “But we can train. Human remains is 580-some different scents that only humans have. That’s what happens when we die, our stomachs don’t. The acid, just keeps deteriorating and within six to 10 minutes, I’ll tell you a person’s dead. It’s that fast of a reaction. We work off of the scent.”

As Numon explained, part of the training process is also for the dog handler. It’s important to understand the dog’s favorite reward, provide a prompt reward and set consequences.

“What we want them [dogs] to understand, there’s nothing is acceptable except human remains. They get no credit for anything else. They get, not nailed, but they get disciplined and corrected if they would do something like take off after a rabbit,” Numon said. “What we want them to understand is when they hit the scent, you have one and a half seconds to give them that atta boy, or they don’t remember. The minute they hit, you’ve got to [say] ‘Oh, good boy’, whatever you’re going to do. And you have to do it within that one and a half seconds. That’s the hardest thing.” 

Inside Numon’s collection of coolers, items can be found to train the HRDD.

“We have several things. We have drains. We’ll put six or eight drains out and then we’ll work the dogs all the way down. And at the last one, we tell them where it is. And the minute that dog’s nose touches, ‘Oh, good boy, good boy. You’re such a good boy,’” Numon explained. 

Numon explained his HRDD train on household drains frequently, mixing up the pattern on which drain holds the scent of human remains. 

“Then I have plastic containers and I put 20-some out. There are two of them that have HRD in them. We go to each one. They’re on a leash. I can do them without a leash, but on a leash, it’s making them slow down, my guys, because they’ll go nuts,” Numon explained. “We imprint that scent. The first time that I imprint them, I open all those coolers up in different areas, you come upwind so the dog smells it long before it gets there and then it’s praise and you give him his command. ‘What you got?’ And you – it’s a brain teaser. When they hit that scent, then you just let them go into it and then you praise them. So, it’s imprinting. Then from there after we know that they’re imprinting with that scent, we turn around and go ‘scent’ and you get your food or whatever. Both these guys are toy-driven,” Numon noted as he pointed to his two certified HRDDs. “We want scent, reward, scent, reward.”

Since Numon is an HRDD instructor, in order to hold his certification, Numon watched 21 dog teams be trained and trained a handful himself along with their handlers. 

“You have to train from beginning to certification seven dogs and their handlers,” Numon explained.

“I train every day. Every day is a conditioning day. We go out and we go out and walk any place for up to two or three months. Usually, I like to keep it about 3/4 of a mile to a mile. Some good exercises. That’s just conditioning. They’re athletes. They have to warm up. We walk. They go to do their thing and potty. And then all of a sudden, they’re ready to fire up and go work. So even in a search, I have to warm them up,” Numon said. “Then I like to train three times a week.”

According to Numon, all of the dogs he owns and even those he has trained over the years love a good crowd to celebrate their accomplishments. 

“Everybody’s a cheerleader when you’re there when you’re training,” Numon explained. “Anybody that’s with me has to be a cheerleader, or you can’t be there because the dogs get fired up. They hear me baby talk, they get fired up.”

Numon and his dogs have been on searches in all types of weather. They have searched in nearly every form of terrain in Goshen County and beyond, including water, but Numon trusts his best friend.

“What happens with water, if we die, our stomachs still are working. The acid in it eats you away. What happens when you drown, the majority of the time, if you are floating when you drown, you died before you went under. Everybody says, ‘Oh, if it’s that river out there, it’s going to take you down [stream],’” Numon explained. “No, it’s not. If you take a rock and throw it out in a river, no matter how fast it is, it goes down. It might go some, but it goes down. So does the body. What happens once the body is under, your oils start to come up to the surface and they will get on all the leaves, all the plants, the trees, anything that’s near that water, they’re going to get on it. It comes up, the scent, and it moves downwind and with the water and it gets on everything”

“If we were searching [in] a river, when they first tell you to learn to search, we start down here (left corner). The dog gets the scent and comes up [the bank]. When he loses the scent, that’s where the body is,” Numon explained. “I start above where they think the body is. I work down and the minute my dog gets the scent and turns you know where the body is. It just makes it easier. Most people train the other way.”

In the last 14 years of service, Numon and his canine partners have assisted law enforcement departments in 35 searches through vigorous training and daily conditioning.