Original Article: https://blog.theanimalrescuesite.greatergood.com/dog-finds-wedding-ring-at-beach/

When a Michigan woman went to the beach with her son and two friends, she was hoping for some rest, relaxation, maybe even some sun. She certainly didn’t expect to lose her wedding and engagement rings in the sand.

But that’s what happened when Elsa Green took off her rings to apply sunscreen, according to the Washington Post. After briefly placing the rings in a ball cap, Green was was startled by a huge beetle. In the confusion, the rings went flying.

Elsa and her friends frantically searched the area, even enlisting a man with a metal detector to help. When their searches came up empty, the women appealed to the Keweenaw County Sheriff’s Office for help. Officers didn’t have a metal detector, but they had something even better. A dog.

The department’s first K-9, Dogo, was more commonly tasked with finding drugs and missing people, but the 5-year-old Dutch shepherd was also trained to find small objects, too.

“In the past, he’s typically found stolen firearms in the forest or a knife at a crime scene,” the Dogo’s police handler, Brad Pelli, told the Washington Post. “Looking for a lost wedding ring was a first,” said Officer Pelli, but Elsa’s rings would be marked with human scent, just like the knives and guns Dogo was able to find.

After working with Dogo for 4 years, Officer Pelli knew the clever pup was up to the challenge. Moreover, he sympathized with Elsa’s plight. Just the summer before, the officer had briefly lost his own wedding ring while swimming in Lake Superior. “So I had an idea of what the lady who’d lost her rings was going through,” Pelli told the paper.

When K-9 Dogo got to the beach, the officer asked Elsa and her friends to clear the area to give Dogo room to work. This increased Dogo’s odds of finding rings with Elsa’s scent in the sand.

“You throw something 20 feet and the dog gets up to go smell it, then lies down next to it,” Pelli explained to The Post. “When they lie down, you reward them. And you keep doing that again and again until you can move on to hidden objects.”

In this case, it only took Dogo a few minutes to find the missing engagement ring in the sand. The wedding ring was found nearby.

“I knew he’d found something, so I got down on my knees to brush away the sand and saw something glimmering,” Pelli told the paper. After the officer returned the engagement ring to its overjoyed owner, Dogo was rewarded with playtime with his favorite ball.

“K9 Dogo, you will forever be my hero!” Green gushed about Dogo’s detection skills on Facebook. “Dogo put his training and skills to use and sure enough he found my rings! Dogo, I’ll be bringing you ice cream to say thank you!”

What a good boy! Has your dog ever helped you retrieve a lost item?

Source: The Animal Rescue Site Blog