River is trained as a “Recall Refind” dog. This means that he not only finds people but also returns to Ryan and leads him back to that person. Photo: courtesy Ryan Breitkreutz.

Ryan Breitkreutz has a day job. If you ask him about the more fulfilling aspects of his life, it might have to do with training River. River, an 80-pound male Weimaraner, was abandoned on public lands, rescued from a shelter, and, having received the proper training to get past his behavioral issues—stemming from his previous owner’s behavior—was recognized as an intuitive search dog. Today, Ryan and River seek certifications qualifying them to take on increasingly more complex wilderness search situations.

When River was a cute little puppy, he was adopted and taken home. These hunting dogs were initially bred by German royalty.[1] They are defined by the American Kennel Club as “friendly, fearless, and obedient” and “eager to please and can take training well,” with a cargo ship’s worth of energy.[2] That’s where a lot of new owners go wrong.

On a scale of one to five, Weimaraners need level-five-plus mental stimulation. Coupled with boundless energy, left without coaching and exercise, these dogs can easily find trouble. According to Laura of Sugarface Foundation, once these dogs mature, they’re often too much for some families, so some are abandoned and dropped off at shelters or otherwise.

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“They thrive on an active outdoor lifestyle, and need consistent training, so assess whether this is really something you can provide before you fall head over heels in love with their aristocratic good looks,” Martha Terry of England’s Horse & Hound writes.

Ryan describes a strong search dog as a “wild child,” an endearing term that breaks down into characteristics that don’t necessarily look like those of a house pet. “You need that over-the-top drive, that go, go, go. They’re breeds that naturally have high energy, high working abilities,” he says.

“They’re obsessive about something. And if you can transfer that behavior to a job, the dog ends up loving that job,” Ryan continues. But there is also reward. “River works endlessly just to play tug with a ball and rope. The only time he ever gets to play tug is when he does his job.” And his job now is searching for lost people. River’s newly acquired, task-oriented behavior and training helps him focus.

Ryan knows that when River is on the hunt for lost people, squirrels are not going to shift his focus. River has a strong hunt instinct—it is literally in his DNA—and a long range. He can find living people in the wilderness. However, not all environments are peaceful forests. Search-and-rescue teams often use helicopters to get in and out of such austere environments.

“I went to a seminar last July with River, and we were able to get on a Black Hawk helicopter. He hopped right on, buckled in, laid down. We went for a flight and came back,” Ryan recounts. He and River had no helicopter experience, no preparation—and Black Hawks are big, imposing machines. He explains that River’s focus on the training helped him temper the nuance of that situation.

River is trained as a “Recall Refind” dog. This means that he not only finds people but also returns to Ryan and leads him back to that person. This is who River is. But he needed Ryan to help bring that out.

Their story started out when Ryan got a phone call from Laura at Sugarface: “This dog’s in the queue to be euthanized, because it’s mentally crashing and going through all kinds of crazy behavior problems.”

River did not want to get into Ryan’s car; eventually, he calmed down. The shelter was a high-stress situation, so decompression took time. He figured out how to open doors and get to food. During those first few weeks, he found a ball to chew and grew attached to Ryan. “It was very clear that he was looking for his person,” Ryan says. Usually the foster, River called on Ryan to adopt him. But as a dog foster parent, he knew that River needed help.

“We brought in a couple ladies from Beehive Training in Salt Lake; they’re wonderful. They do a lot of strong-willed dog behavioral training. I did five sessions with them, five days in a row, and we used busy parks, [like] Pine Brook Park, with all kinds of distractions. It was fundamental, and we did hour-long sessions, and it worked,” Ryan shares.

Eventually, through eagerness to learn and other training, River grew quickly, hitting his training milestones. After four months, in summer of 2023, he started his first training with search-and-rescue groups. In March 2024, he passed his first search test, where he found the two test people—and then found two more.

The image of a troubled dog on death row has faded into the past. River didn’t ask to be in a shelter. He didn’t ask to be left in the wilderness. River, like all dogs, needed guidance, love, and consistency. Ryan laments, “There are a lot of steps you can take before dropping a dog off in the mountains and walking away from it.”

[1] https://www.horseandhound.co.uk/dogs/weimaraner-dog-breed-factfile-852162

[2] https://www.akc.org/dog-breeds/weimaraner/