Duke, a male Chocolate Lab, was born on August 22, 1997. Purchased by Doris and Larry Bilderback of Salinas as a hunting dog, Duke demonstrated very early on that he had other aspirations—he knew he was much better suited to the life of a Search Dog. That’s when they decided to contact SDF.
Evaluated as a potential Search Dog, Duke passed the tests with ease. He was soon brought to the home of Debra Tosch, SDF’s Executive Director, in Ojai, California where he lived for two months. Debra prepared him for his official training program at Sundowners Kennel—the facility in Gilroy, California where all SDF dogs trained.
Duke was paired with his handler, Howard Orr—a firefighter with the Santa Barbara County Fire Department—in 1999, where he found a real home and they became a valuable team. Duke and Howard were loyal partners on the job and formed a strong bond through their continual training schedule. This schedule meant they trained every week with the other canines and handlers in their SDF Training Group. They worked continuously on search and rescue skills, maintaining top form so they would be ready for deployment at a moment’s notice. They also achieved Advanced Certification from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), making them able to respond across the nation as a Canine Disaster Search Team.
Part of Los Angeles City Task Force 1 (CA-TF1), Howard and Duke responded to numerous deployments during their 9-year career, including the La Conchita mudslide in January 2005, Hurricanes Katrina and Rita in August and September 2005, the Paso Robles Earthquake in 2003, the Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City in 2002, and their very first deployment at the Echo Park Building Collapse in 2000. However, out of all the deployments they responded to, the one they are most recognized for is their response to Ground Zero in the days following the attack on the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001.
After many years of searching, Duke retired to spend time with Howard and his family at home in Thousand Oaks, CA. He still loved his toys and an easy search every now and then, but certainly enjoyed his retirement.
After struggling for months with several health issues, Duke crossed the Rainbow Bridge on August 8, 2011, with Howard by his side. As one of the founding teams in the Southern California area, Howard and Duke helped form the solid foundation that many of our current Search Teams have relied on when first beginning their journeys as disaster search canine handlers. Duke will be greatly missed by those who knew and worked with him, as well as those who may never have met this great dog but admired his work from afar. Duke’s pawprints will be big ones to fill and we will all miss him immensely.
SDF Executive Director Debra Tosch:
“Duke has a very special place in my heart as a member of my training group. In the old days we had a “Prep Home” program. I was the prep home for Duke and have many stories to tell about the time Duke spent with me. This was “pre-Abby”. Duke and Abby were actually “kennel mates” up at Sundowners.
Our former Community Relations Manager, Celeste, remembers Duke as ‘that dog that pulled Debra along the bike path’ as I ‘walked’ this 85 pounds of pure energy to our first office. I remember taking Duke to a training and Wilma telling me, ‘Just hold on to him until I say release him, and then just tell him to search.’ Yeah, easy for her to say—I only out-weighed this dog by 10 pounds at the time!
Before Howard, Duke was assigned to another handler named Dave Conner, a handler in San Diego. My handlers’ course was Dave and me with Wilma as our instructor. During our ‘week’ at Sundowners, we were informed that Wilma had committed us to a ‘Career Day’. Of course I was nervous as could be, but Dave was a pro and helped me through this. Duke was Dave’s second dog. His first dog was a ‘mix’ that did not make it through the program. It did not work out with Dave due to departmental issues, and Duke was assigned to Howard. BTW, Dave was Howard and Duke’s Search Team Manager at the World Trade Center.
I was there the day that Howard was introduced to and paired with Duke. I have never seen a brighter smile from a handler. Howard had raised a puppy to do canine search but Ember did not quite make it; therefore, Howard was chosen to receive Duke. We were at a rubble pile with Duke and Dave. Howard said, ‘What do I do?’ and Dave said ‘Just tell him to search’. Howard released Duke and said, ‘Search’. Duke ran up the pile, did a two victim search, and looked at Howard like, ‘that’s it?’ Howard went home one happy camper.
Duke and Abby paralleled their careers and went on multiple deployments together.
I have many fond memories that I will always carry of Duke and Abby: me waking up in the middle of the night to a ‘burglar’ noise just to find out it was Duke playing in his crate with a tennis ball he had snuck in; Abby’s one injury at 9/11 coming from Duke and Abby playing after a stressful deployment; Duke launching himself out of a fire department van at a training while still in his crate; Duke jumping into a mud hole right before catching the bus to take us to the airbase during 9/11; Duke chewing up the electrical cord at our old office and surviving it, etc.
These dogs all have their own stories to tell and I am honored to be part of those stories!”
SDF Founder Wilma Melville:
“Duke wagged his tail with such vigor that the tip of it received an open sore. No matter what Howard tried, no matter what vet care, that tail wound continued to open up. Finally, amputation was the only answer. Duke lost about a third of his tail—but the tail was so long that losing one third did not matter and the wound healed very nicely.
With Duke’s passing there is sadness as well as smiles as we remember the big guy. Actually he, like the others, will never be forgotten. We’ll see to that with the Canine Memorial at the NTC.”