Garmin to the Rescue

Man’s best friend isn’t just a common expression; it can be an actuality for countless people and their cherished dogs. When Erin Hammer and his wife Lana realized one of their beloved hunting dogs “Joe” was missing after a long hunting expedition in Oklahoma, they turned to the help of Garmin technology to locate and rescue their loyal four-legged companion.

Joe had fallen 30 feet off a rock bluff and entered into an unfamiliar cave opening where he went missing for nearly 17 hours. Fortunately, Joe was wearing Garmin’s Alpha GPS dog tracking device, which helped locate precisely where Joe had entered the cave. The only problem was the GPS doesn’t work in the cave, but they were able to find the opening. Joe’s owners were calling to him inside the cave and he could be overheard growling at times, but sounded faint and possibly weak. After countless times of trying to climb into the tight opening of the cavity, the team of outdoorsmen turned to yet another Garmin device to help with the rescue.

With Garmin’s VIRB Elite action camera attached to a pole, the team gradually started to pursue the depths of the cave and tried to get a closer look at Joe’s condition. After hours of speculating, the team could finally see Joe’s collar light up and Joe himself laying in the dark. Using the Wi-Fi capabilities of the VIRB, the team was then able to view the live footage from the camera and determined that Joe was wedged tight about 25 feet into the mouth of the cave and 3 feet down. The team then had no option but to start cutting away rock from the site. They dug, chiseled, and slowly inch-by-inch moved a 7-ton rock to expand the cave opening, which was just enough for Joe to finally return to the arms of his owners. 

This truly was a happy ending to an almost fatal incident and we couldn’t be happier to hear that Joe is safe and sound!  

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