Almost a week ago a local Sheriff’s Department in Mississippi attempted to take a mentally ill subject into custody for his well being. Unfortunately, he struggled with the deputies and fled on foot into a large wooded area. The deputies were concerned for his welfare and knew that they needed to locate the individual.

They contacted local dog teams to search for the individual with no avail. They had seven different police and search dog teams and over twenty searchers and deputies looking for the subject for hours. They searched the area diligently and were unsuccessful in locating the missing person.

Over 24 hours after the individual fled on foot, the Sheriff’s Office contacted Handler D.W. Gilbert and K-9 Dixi of the DeSoto County Fire Marshals Office in DeSoto County, Mississippi to search for the subject. They arrived on scene after all of the other people and dogs had contaminated it, searching for the lost individual. Gilbert presented Dixi with a scent article, belonging to the missing person, and she immediately got on the trail.

Even with all of the contamination and a trail that was over twenty four hours old, Dixi was able to follow the odor of the mental subject. Dixi successfully located the individual, hiding in a tractor-trailer, less than 13 minutes after she began searching.

Dixi is a 17-month old Bloodhound that was donated to the DeSoto County Fire Marshal’s Office by the Jimmy Ryce Foundation. Dixi was later trained by Highland Canine Training at our facility in Harmony as a scent discrimination trailing dog. Dixi has had several successful tracks during her short career as a search and rescue dog. Dixi is currently handled by D.W Gilbert who recently began working with Dixi and completed his certification less than one week prior to this find. Congratulations D.W. and Dixi, and keep up the Great work!