Thanks to the help of a smart dog, a 4-year-old boy who wandered out of his yard into a heavily wooded area was found unharmed.

At around 4:30 p.m. on Thursday, Aug. 28, Weare police responded to the home of James and Shantelle Sutkus, for a report of a missing boy.

Weare police Sgt. Joseph Kelley, officer Kenneth Cox and Kelley’s partner, police dog Mica, were able to track the boy and found him within 10 or 15 minutes, Kelley said.

“He threw rocks at his brother, and instead of getting in trouble he wanted to run and hide,” said Sutkus. “I went out to call for him to have a time out, and he wasn’t answering.”

After Sutkus searched for her son for several minutes, she called police, frantic that she and her other children could not locate her son.

The area behind the home is made up of miles of thick woods and swamp land.

“I was thinking that I would never see my baby again,” Sutkus said.

Two police officers from the Merrimack County Sheriff’s Office remained in the home to search it and be there should the boy return while Kelley and Mica tracked Cody’s scent from the last spot he was standing on the yard.

Mica, a 4-year-old female Belgian Malinois who has been working with Kelley for almost two years, found the trail that went around the side of the house, into the backyard and eventually led to Cody, who was crouched behind a tree about 200 yards into the woods behind the home.

“She basically just made a beeline right out into the woods,” said Kelley.

The entire ordeal, from the time police arrived to the time Cody was found, was about half an hour.

Sutkus said none of her three young children have ever run off before.

“They know the rules. They know never to go into the woods, or go past the bend in the driveway,” Sutkus said.

After Cody was found unharmed, the boy played ball with Mica.

“After everybody left, we talked about it, and he felt bad and he said he wouldn’t do it anymore,” said Sutkus. “He was just thinking he was hiding. It’s the mind of a 4-year-old, he doesn’t really get that what he did was wrong.”

Mica graduated from the New Hampshire State Police patrol and narcotics detection schools, and has been working in Weare as Kelley’s partner since early 2007.

“We’ve never located a small child that was lost, but we’ve done numerous tracks,” Kelley said, adding he takes Mica to neighboring towns to track down drugs and criminals.

About a month ago, Mica tracked down four robbers in Hopkinton who’d broken into a business and fled on foot.