Will Lashley and Ulysses rush to follow the scent on a search and rescue exercise.

Kara and Will moved to Huntersville last winter with Will's job as director of sourcing for Newell Rubbermaid. The couple was married in March. Prior to the move, the Lashleys and their pets had lived in Texas. For a number of years, Will had wanted to raise a working dog, specifically a black German Shepherd. When they got a call that a breeder in Texas had one available, they bought Ulysses immediately. He is a German Shepherd of European descent, and working dogs have been in his family for generations. It's literally in his blood.

His training started immediately, first through normal obedience lessons and then with enrollment in Texas' esteemed Triple Crown Academy for working dogs. With the family's move to North Carolina, Ulysses was transferred to classes at Tarheel Canine, where he stayed full-time until his graduation last week.

Will, as Ulysses' handler, also attended training at Tarheel Canine. While Ulysses may be finished with his first round of search and rescue education, Will still has some skills left to learn. Their exercises at home are just as much about testing Will as they are about testing the dog.

In their practice runs, Will pulls out Ulysses' special day-glow rescue harness and Ulysses knows it's time to go to work. Kara takes a walkie-talkie and hides somewhere in the neighborhood. When they get her signal, Will and Ulysses take off to find her. Ulysses rushes forward with his nose to the ground, then once he catches Kara's scent he bounds ahead, Will rushing to catch up at the end of the leash. It only takes him minutes to find Kara, whether she is sitting in the playground or hiding among tall brush on the neighborhood's outskirts. Upon happily greeting Kara, Ulysses receives his special training toy, which he's been conditioned to find.

The toy makes search and rescue a game- a fun exercise for the dog. Ulysses has been conditioned to relate the toy with the scent of humans, so when he goes on a mission he's looking for a person, not just the toy.

"The whole point of this is it's fun for the dog," Will explained. "The training is to teach him the game."

He also has been trained in scent discrimination, so Ulysses can find any human, or if there is more than one person in an area, he can locate a specific individual after sniffing an item of their clothing.

"We don't want to train him to just find Kara," Will said of their exercises, and soon they will be having friends help them by hiding for Ulysses. They've already had curious pals lining up to be found, so volunteers shouldn't be hard to locate.

While he was trained with police dogs and Fort Bragg dogs at Tarheel Canine, Ulysses is far from an attack dog. "He's trained to find and then play," Will described. Search and rescue dogs are on a mission to locate people because they know they'll receive a reward of a toy at the end- he's been conditioned to love humans.

Neighbors have been curious about seeing a large, intimidating looking ebony dog walking their streets in search and rescue gear, but glad to have this line of defense living in their midst. Kara and Will make sure to socialize him, taking him out for walks often and over to enjoy pleasant weather in Birkdale.

The Lashleys' love of dogs and pets has truly driven a large part of their lives between Ulysses' training and Kara's newest endeavor, a pet sitting service called Kritter Kare by Kara. With this, she provides in-home pet care, meeting and caring for other pets all around the lake area. "It has taken off and I've got more really than I can do!" she said.

Ulysses' next step is to meet area volunteer fire departments, demonstrating his skills and letting them know he's available to help.

Next year the Lashleys hope to start him on training for cadaver searches. As for long-term goals, they are considering breeding Ulysses and perhaps entering him in agility contests.

For now, though, they look forward to the Ulysses' first search and rescue mission. As Kara said, "If he finds one person, it'll all be worth it."