Gordon & Louis Gudiel

When Gordon’s owners had to move out of the apartment they were living in, they packed up their belongings and left—without Gordon! The property manager discovered him later, alone inside the empty unit. Despite his circumstances, Gordon was a friendly boy, so he was taken to the Tooele City Animal Shelter in Utah and put up for public adoption. Once at the shelter, staff noticed Gordon’s tremendous enthusiasm for toys and contacted our SDF Canine Recruitment team. One of our recruiters was quickly dispatched to screen Gordon and shared that when he pulled a tennis ball out of his pocket during Gordon’s evaluation, Gordon scaled a fence in his excitement to get it! That clinched it—Gordon was a search dog candidate!

Once at SDF, our trainers began working with Gordon to develop his innate qualities into the tangible skills he would need as a search dog. Gordon came to us obsessed with toys—which was good—but he was highly skeptical of playing toy games with people. “What if they’re all just trying to steal the toy?” Gordon seemed to wonder. Eventually, Gordon realized that playing games with a partner was more fun than playing with the toy alone, and just like that, Gordon had learned cooperative toy play, a cornerstone of search dog training!

From then on, this adorable Chocolate Lab/German Shepherd mix brought the best of both breeds to his training. He absorbed information like a sponge and quickly learned new skills, perhaps due to the intelligence inherent in German Shepherds, and charmed everyone with his high spirits, goofiness, and amiability: characteristics admired in Labs.

Gordon was paired with his handler, Louis Gudiel (L.A. County Fire, CA Task Force 2), on July 2, 2022. A first responder since 1999, Louis knew he wanted to be a firefighter ever since he got to ride on a fire truck thanks to a school career day when he was in eighth grade. He was always intrigued by working dogs, and after meeting search dog, Cajun (partner of Josh Flores of L.A. County Fire, CA Task Force 2) about seven years ago, Louis became interested in being a handler himself. When he worked a shift with SDF handler Sean Quigley and search dog Geno, Sean gave Louis the scoop on SDF, and Louis applied to be a Canine Search Specialist.

So far, Louis says, the journey has been incredible. He enjoys the process of constantly learning and being challenged and, of course, bonding with Gordon. Louis says that he knew Gordon was the dog for him on their second day working together. They were having fun during play, and Gordon put his paws on Louis’ chest and made eye contact: it was an instant bond.

Gordon now lives at home with Louis and his family and continue training weekly as a team with their CA-TF2 teammates. In November 2023, they achieved certification with the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), which allows them to deploy around the globe with the task force. We are so happy for both Gordon and Louis and look forward to all the wonderful things they’ll do in their career together.