Carol Gilbert hurled a canister of human teeth out into the grass.

She turned an expectant gaze to the creature at her feet and leaned forward. Thrusting both arms away from her chest, she yelled an order.

“Go find!”

The bouncy Labrador retriever took off, her nose glued to the ground. After a moment of distraction (even highly trained dogs have sporadic attention spans) Moki found the teeth, turned to Gilbert and sat patiently.

This was a warm-up, one of the first steps in a one-hour training session. Gilbert also has cans of fingernail clippings, human hair and dead skin, all kept in a plastic carry case — a tackle box, of sorts — for the training regimen of a cadaver dog.

Moki is short for Makalu , one of the 27,000-foot neighbors of Mount Everest in the Himalayan mountain range. It’s a strange name for a 4-year-old dog of such diminutive stature, but then, size doesn’t amount to much in the world of search and rescue. More important is firm discipline, instilled by the repeat activities set by Gilbert.

Much of the training involves hiding the canisters and ordering Moki to find them, using her power of smell to develop a skill that will prepare her for work in possible disaster s. Gilbert uses her own hair in one can. The teeth she collected from a local dentist. And the skin flakes came from washing her hands dozens of times a day while working at Carilion Roanoke Memorial Hospital as a surgeon. It’s important, she said, for dogs to learn human smells.

A January afternoon found the pair walking along Hanging Rock Battlefield Trail near Salem. Gilbert hid the canisters along a hiking path, wedging one in some brambles, tucking others beneath leaves and rocks.

“Go find!”

And the dog did, her tail wagging in anticipation. Sometimes she veered off course, other times she took a direct route to her targets. They do this two or three times a week, constantly tuning Moki’s skills to sharpen her senses and attention.

It’s a labor of love that has also become an alternate way of life for Gilbert, a 62-year-old woman who has dedicated herself to mostly one thing: her work as a trauma surgeon.

She has no children, she isn’t married, and until her mid-50s, Gilbert had never owned a dog.

She tried raising African pygmy hedgehogs for a time, but what they had in prickly fur they lacked in personality.

“They really do have tiny brains,” Gilbert said.

Her job as a surgeon and 15 years as medical director with the state Office of Emergency Medical Services kept her on the road a lot, squeezing out any extra time to spend at home, let alone to raise a dog, she said. But in 2002, when she retired from her position with the state and took on a different role with Carilion, her responsibilities changed and gave her more time to spend in Roanoke. Consequently, her life took a turn.

She adopted Theodore Roosevelt, a handsome chocolate Labrador puppy with all the qualities that ensnare so many into dog ownership. And, as is the case for so many dog owners without prior experience, her life quickly became more harried.

“I don’t have any children, but I can only imagine what it would be like to have after that,” Gilbert said, chuckling.

The idea of shared space was new to both Gilbert and Theodore. The first pair of gnawed shoes was a surprise, the rocking chair decorated in bite marks was next.

“He didn’t have any friends to chew or bite except for me,” she said. “We finally reached an understanding between the two of us. But I do remember a couple of nights where I was looking at him and thinking, ‘This is just not going to work.’ ”

She kept Theodore Roosevelt, but had more luck training after she adopted Moki. After getting a grip on her new roommates, Gilbert joined the Virginia Canine Response Team , where she has rubbed shoulders with other search-and-rescue dog owners. Some of them, such as Kenny Sellers of Bedford, had similar stories.

“I had never trained a dog,” Sellers said. “Then I got a Lab puppy and I saw an ad in the paper for obedience. So I went to obedience classes and some of the search people were in there. I got interested and things started from there.”

Sellers and Gilbert both have traveled to assist in rescue missions. Sellers has been to Ohio, Texas, Tennessee and other states. Gilbert worked the Morgan Harrington case in central Virginia and went to Arkansas, where she helped after a flood.

Mark Eggeman of the Virginia Department of Emergency Management said people such as Gilbert help keep a robust network of volunteers on hand during times of need. Requests for their services crop up about 80 times a year, he said.

Both Sellers and Eggeman described dog training as a young person’s game. Still, more and more they’re seeing older faces in the ranks.

“I’ve been in this for 27 years, and when I started I was the median age,” Eggeman said. “Twenty-seven years later, I pretty much am still the median age. We have people out there who are in their 60s. That’s not necessarily surprising. I’ve heard a lot of people lament that they have a difficult time recruiting new members these days.”

Stepping down the trail near Hanging Rock Battlefield, Gilbert kept firm command of Moki, giving her direction and rewards for jobs well done.

“You always need to end training sessions on a positive note,” she said. “You need to have them looking forward to it.”

As much can be said for her.

For every time Gilbert orders Moki to “go find” something, there’s a reminder that, in many ways, she’s found something of her own, she said. In 2010, Gilbert traveled alone to Haiti to offer her assistance after the earthquake that rocked that nation’s capital. When she returned, she said she witnessed first-hand something that altered — ever so slightly — her perception of her own life.

“When I came home, the little dog was so happy to see me,” she said. “I guess they thought I might not ever come back. The little one was kind of licking my ear because she was so excited. It’s really helpful to have some warm fuzzy animal to be happy to see you.”

She paused.

“They’ve been great,” she said. “It took me a long time to know how to do this thing, but it works now, and it’s been really good for me.”

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