Skill of search dogs focus of Jan. 19 talk at Bradbury Science Museum

Contact: Steve Sandoval, steves@lanl.gov, (505) 665-9206 (05-002)

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LOS ALAMOS, N.M., Jan. 14, 2005 -- Explosives, airport security and natural disasters are all familiar words that bring home the reality of the world today. Dogs are increasingly used to effectively assist law enforcement and national security in ferreting out information that might otherwise be hard to obtain.

At noon, Wednesday (Jan. 19) at Los Alamos National Laboratory's Bradbury Science Museum, Los Alamos technical staff member Wendee Brunish will talk about these special dogs and how they use their skills for wilderness, disaster and forensic work. She will be accompanied by Halley, her third trained search dog. The talk is free and open to the public.

Brunish, a 20-year employee at the Laboratory, works in the Geophysics Group and is a team leader for the Geodynamics and National Security Team. She also has spent 16 years in a second career as a dog handler working with government and law enforcement agencies including the Federal Emergency Management Agency, FBI, the Bureau of Indian Affairs, the State Police and the Albuquerque and Santa Fe Police departments. Brunish will discuss why dogs are so effective in this type of work and how they are trained to accomplish extraordinary tasks.

Brunish also will talk about homeland security and how urban search and rescue issues differ from non-urban settings, especially for a crime scene or the aftermath of a terrorist attack.

Always an animal lover, Brunish had never owned a dog or done any animal training until 1983 when she moved to Los Alamos. Intrigued by experiences with her own dog, she began to study search dogs and soon joined a local canine search and rescue group, responding to many searches, including a tornado in Oklahoma in May 1999.

Los Alamos Women in Science is sponsoring this talk at the museum. See a full abstract at http://nmnwse.org/lawis/lunchtalks online.

The museum, located at 15th Street and Central Avenue in downtown Los Alamos, is open from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., Tuesday through Saturday. It is closed on Sunday and Monday, and on federal holidays. The museum is part of Los Alamos' Public Affairs Office.

Los Alamos National Laboratory is operated by the University of California for the National Nuclear Security Administration of the U.S. Department of Energy and works in partnership with NNSA's Sandia and Lawrence Livermore national laboratories to support NNSA in its mission.

Los Alamos enhances global security by ensuring the safety and reliability of the U.S. nuclear weapons stockpile, developing technical solutions to reduce the threat of weapons of mass destruction and solving problems related to energy, environment, infrastructure, health and national security concerns.