The Team
Tim Kuma
Tim has been a Shasta County Resident over 30 years. Employed at Mercy Hospital for 20 years. Member of the SAR Dog Team for 13 years. His first SAR partner was a yellow lab named Abbi; now retired. “Abbers” loves anyone who will throw a ball for her or rub her with a towel after a bath. She loves to clam in the water, fetch beverages from the fridge, and do other tricks like crawl, shake, and roll over. She is currently 13 years old.
Presently Tim works a German Shepherd named Ruby (daughter of Rudy-team cadaver dog at the time). She was donated by Frances Turner and the Barners to Tim for SAR use. She loves her toy and will fetch forever. She likes the water and long runs; hates the vacuum, chain saw, and weed-eater. She also likes to do tricks like Abbi. Currently Ruby is 6 and has been on the team for 4 years.
Tim’s hobbies and interests include backpacking, mountain biking, skiing and snowboarding, traveling, training and working with the dogs in obedience, tracking, and recently, cadaver problems. He enjoys volunteer work with Search and Rescue – be it with the Dog Team or as a Ground Pounder on grid or evidence searches. Feb. 2011.
Don and Linette Chaix
Team Treasurer and Secretary joined SAR in 2005. Residents of Fall River/Cassel/Burney area. Life long history of volunteering which began and still includes Don being Chief and Linette a member of the Cassel Volunteer Fire Department rolling out to fire and medical calls 24/7; Don also working at the area hospital in the Emergency Room. They began their SAR work with Miranda and Josie, both German Shepherds who loved the tracking game! Linette then started Tazer, currently, our only male German Shepherd on the team. When 2009 took the team’s water cadaver dog Rudy and then Shelby (Injuries sustained in a roll over in the snow coming home from a search) from the Barners, the Chaixs located a working German Shepherd kennel and bred Miranda so the team could recover their losses and mend the heart of Linette’s partner, Candice. From that, Miranda gave us Duezer and Hannah, two sisters who are working eagerly to serve others and can be used to support team efforts to keep the team in dogs for years to come.
The Chaixs enjoy doing therapy work with Miranda, Josie, and Tazer going to hospitals and schools bringing sunshine to the faces of the less fortunate, disabled, shut-ins, and school children. Linette has stewarded Canine Good Citizen testing with Candice. They enjoy draft horse activities, working and showing horse drawn farm equipment, working and rearing a line of Shires that is unsurpassed and genuine to the breed, raising many exotic (many unwanted by their owners) and near extinction birds, and tracking their team of Search dogs whenever called. Feb 2011.
Thomas and Candice Barner
Candice was introduced to SAR in the early 1990s by her husband and then Deputy Sheriff K-9 Trainer, Tom Barner. Tom was very successful with 3 working Shepherds over his career; Ben, Ozzie, and Rudy. Of those, Ozzie achieved what no other Sheriff K-9 in Northern California has since; 144 finds with 85 of those officer protection (bites). His tracking and air scenting was incredible and requested by other counties many times. His name alone stopped offending criminals who did not want to tangle with the legendary “Oz.” He was stabbed 9 times with a buck knife and went back to work 10 days later once tubes were removed. Candice has been Team Leader, Secretary and Team Trainer for the past several years, currently a dog trainer at a local pet resort, an AKC CGC Evaluator, member of area training, showing, and therapy dog clubs and organizations.
Candice’s first partner in SAR was Lynzzie, (CD, TD, TDX) Ozzie’s daughter, who gave 8 wonderful years of tracking (trailing for you term junkies) to Shasta County including some high profile cases. The Barners then worked Rudy (a big beautiful male from Lynzzie) who had many water/cadaver finds. He was incredibly accurate, especially in and on the water and saved the dive team and Sheriff’s Office many man hours by pin pointing body locations. They acquired Candice’s current partner and True North, Casey, a black Labrador Retriever, whose stamina is unsurpassed. They worked her in SAR tracking, obedience, Canine Good Citizen (by the way, all SAR dogs have their CGC), Rally-O (earning her RN), agility for fun, Shasta Splash Dock Dogs for fun, cadaver (Certified Advanced), and she and Tom had fun hunting pheasants and ducks. Casey and Candice enjoy working with Rx Pets and Delta Society in Therapy work going to skilled nursing facilities, schools, and working with disabled. Casey’s gentle spirit makes her the perfect all around working and family dog.
Candice also had from Rudy, a female pup she named Shelby. Shelby was 2 when she made call out status. She loved patrolling the property and chasing away bears from the livestock. Her life and SAR career ended much too short after a roll over coming home from a search in the snow. The Chaixs made it their mission to find a working male to match their female, titled in Germany and surrounding countries in all disciplines and physical traits. They bred Miranda, gave the Barners pick of litter, and now two years later, Hannah and her sister Duezer are striving for call out status. Fearless Hannah is their pride and joy and with Casey they will continue their work …so that others may live…. Feb. 2011.