From the moment of his birth to his formal training with the Search Dog Foundation (SDF), Dawson’s life had never been ordinary. Even among other SDF Disaster Search Dogs – all extraordinary individuals – Dawson stood out because of his unique training.
Named “Jo-Jo” at birth, Dawson entered this world as a special dog. He was born a “singleton” (the only pup in the litter) in Dillon, Montana, in 2002. There he was given to a licensed vet technician and friend of the breeder, Kellee Matthews. Kellee, a long-time friend of SDF, felt he would make a good candidate for our program. SDF agreed and Kellee took on the role of Prep Home mom for Dawson when he was just a few months old.
Disaster Search Dogs are trained to search for and locate live human scent. Avalanches, collapsed buildings, airplane crashes, train wrecks, or areas devastated by tornadoes, hurricanes, or flooding are all sites where dogs search for victims of disasters. Unfortunately, not all victims live through the initial disaster or survive until they are found. Some dogs, Disaster Recovery Canines, are trained to find these people so their bodies can be retrieved. Dawson was such a dog – he was originally selected to be SDF’s first dog trained for recovery rather than rescue.
Following several months with Kellee, Dawson went to Sundowners Kennel, SDF’s training facility at the time. After six months at Sundowners, Dawson was placed with experienced SDF handler Ron Weckbacher. Ron was previously partnered with Manny, a live scent Search Dog trained by SDF, but after Manny’s retirement, Ron wanted to work alongside another Search Dog.
Ron and Dawson worked hard and achieved very unique status in disaster work – certifying in both recovery and rescue – and in 2006, they became certified as a Disaster Recovery Team for the state of California Office of Emergency Services, law enforcement branch.
In 2008, Ron decided to expand his and Dawson’s work to live scent rescue and with that came some changes; Dawson and Ron used a unique set of commands to differentiate between recovery and live scent searching. Their hard work paid off and in December 2009, Dawson and Ron became Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) Certified for live scent rescue as well. The team was ever-poised and ready to respond to disasters across the nation and world, as members of the internationally deployable FEMA Los Angeles County Task Force 2 (CA-TF2).
Throughout their careers, the team deployed numerous times:
- January 2005 – Mudslide – La Conchita, CA
- August 2005 – Missing Person Search – Topanga, CA
- August-September 2005 – Hurricane Katrina – Mississippi & Louisiana
- September 2005 – Hurricane Rita – Louisiana & Texas
- April 2006 – Missing Person Search – Ventura, CA
- May 2006 – Missing Person Search – Mt. Pinos, CA
- January 2010 – Earthquake – Port-au-Prince, Haiti
After a lengthy career in service to humanity, Ron made the decision to retire Dawson in 2011. Dawson remained in the Weckbacher home as a beloved family member until he passed away peacefully on December 6, 2016. Today, a portrait of Dawson sits on SDF’s Canine Memorial Wall at our National Training Center in Santa Paula, CA, as a tribute to Dawson’s life and his career at Ron’s side.