‘Reba’ goes to snow school — patrol pup continues a legacy of ski safety

SANDPOINT — Each winter day, Schweitzer is visited by “powder hounds”: skiers and snowboards on the hunt for fresh snow. A different group of snow searchers can also be found on the slopes; since they walk on four legs instead of two, they probably have a better claim to the name.

Schweitzer’s avalanche rescue dogs are team of five American Labrador Retrievers with a critical task at the ski area. Each animal is paired with a ski patrol handler, who can use the animal’s keen sense of smell and ability to quickly traverse terrain to help find and recover a victim buried in an avalanche. 

Ski patroller and founder of the avalanche dog program Jeff Thompson says the reason he recruits labs is simple: “They like to find things, they like the cold and they're friendly.” 

Annie, the oldest of the animals at age 10, retired at the end of the last ski season after a decade of service. To fill her spot? Enter Reba: a 13-month-old black lab puppy with pep to spare. 

“She's a spicy one,” Thompson said. “She kind of dances to her own beat.” 

As Annie’s primary handler, Thompson began looking for a replacement candidate in the early months of 2024. After making several visits to Gold Creek Kennel — a local breeder for work and sport labradors — Thompson selected 2-month-old Reba in March. 

“The timing is really important to us,” he said. A dog born in January like Reba can join the team in the spring and mature throughout the summer; “That allows them to hit the ground running the next season,” said Thompson. 

Before any formal training takes place, Thompson said he focuses on building a connection with an animal and preparing it for long-term success. 

“The first thing is really just learning to become a dog,” he said. “Just exposing her to life, building her confidence, building a relationship, and learning all the sights and sounds and smells of the world.” 

Once snow was on the ground in November, Thompson taught Reba to board a ski lift, ride on a snowmobile, and sit on the shoulders of a moving skier. 

Then, after passing a preliminary test to show she would be a good candidate for further education, Reba faced her operational exam. To test a dog’s ability to detect an avalanche victim, a volunteer is buried a meter below the surface of the snow in a designated area, and dog and handler have to find them and dig them out safely. 

Reba passed the exercise in early February this year to become certified to work on the mountain. In the future, she’ll also face an advanced backcountry test, where she’ll have to locate up to five mock victims buried in a larger area. 

“Since you don’t know the number of people, you have to be able to confidently say, ‘Yeah, my dog cleared this area and I feel confident that there’s nobody left,’” said Thompson. 

Just as important as training the animals, Thompson added, is training patrollers to use them effectively. 

“I like to say that training the handlers is harder than training the dogs,” he said. 

“It's not just being able to travel through the snow with the dog — it's being able to communicate with search and rescue. It's being able to have a search strategy. It's being able to ride a snowmobile or assess avalanche danger,” he added. “There are a million things that go into how you search with an avalanche dog, and every situation is a little bit different.” 

After a season ends, each dog lives with their primary handler and takes a vacation until the snow falls again next year. 

“We try to save the wear and tear on them,” Thompson said. “For the most part, they just take it easy in the summer.”   

When avalanche dogs eventually age out of service, like Annie, they visit the mountain less frequently and become ambassadors of the initiative. 

“Education is the other piece of our program — being able to highlight avalanche safety and promote it,” Thompson said. “The older retired dogs are a lot easier to take to high schools or bring in front of big groups because they tend to be better behaved.” 

“It's hard when you get on stage with a 2-year-old black lab that's like a little Tasmanian devil,” he added with a laugh. 

Annie’s most important role now, however, is to prepare the next powder hound in line to be a friendly face on the mountain and — in a crisis — potentially save a life. 

Thompson said that by living with Annie full-time, Reba has picked up some of her traits: “I think it sped Reba’s training up quite a bit,” he said. 

According to Thompson, Annie is as good a role model as they come; with a seasoned mentor in her corner, Reba has everything she needs to shine on the slopes for years to come. 

“Annie was the best avalanche dog I'd had,” he added. “To have Reba learn from her has been special.”