AUGUST 31, 2017 – 10 PM LOCAL TIME With meteorologists calling Harvey the worst natural disaster in American history, an additional SDF-trained Canine Disaster Search Team was added to the national roster of those responding to this storm. Search Team Wade Haller & Rex, with California Task Force 5 (based …
On June 20 and 21, SDF welcomed Dr. Erin Perry and her team to the NTC to conduct Working Canine Research for Southern Illinois University. Dr. Perry is testing a new canine decontamination (DECON) process for handlers to use after searching each day on deployment. Dr. Perry’s study seeks to …
We are so excited to bring you closer than ever before to the action in this summer’s Bark Alert! From our newest initiative with The Rachael Ray Foundation to our first-ever Deployment Simulation at the National Training Center (NTC), we are thrilled to share these latest and greatest Search Dog stories and in-depth, behind-the-scenes features on the work that YOU make possible through your generous support!
Meet two of our canine candidates in training: Deacon and Frisco! DEACON Deacon was privately donated to SDF and he arrived at our National Training Center (NTC) in Santa Paula, California on December 26, 2016. What a present Deacon has turned out to be! The young Black Labrador is as …
With a background like his, it was only a matter of time before Jason Geary would become a Search Dog Handler. It seemed that Jason Geary and Marsi the Yellow Lab were destined to be a team. So much so that Jason recalled how quickly Marsi took to him when …
Team Info Handler: Jason Geary Years of Service: 2005 – 2015 Task Force: New York Task Force 2 (NY-TF2) Agency: City of Cohoes Level: SUSAR Type I Last Certification: September 15, 2013 Search Dog Info Breed: Yellow Lab Sex: Female Born: July 19, 2003 Crossed Rainbow Bridge: July 7, 2017 Recruited from: Doyle Family Guardian: Janice Kozlowski Sponsor: Young & Rubicam …
Thanks to the pioneering efforts of many over the last few decades, including our Founder Wilma Melville, shelter and rescue dogs are no longer considered castaways. It took some time, but they have earned a well-deserved reputation as potentially valuable lifesaving resources in Disaster Search work!
Often the dogs that end up in shelters have exactly the characteristics sought after in this field: high drive, toy obsession, and athleticism that has them jumping fences. In recent years, it has become so popular for agencies to adopt shelter dogs with potential to work in certain fields that they have become harder to find.
So SDF had to reassess our process and evolve again.
Keeping our main focus on giving shelter and rescue dogs a new “leash on life,” SDF has developed a network of Regional Canine Recruiters across the nation. These are canine savvy and working dog knowledgeable individuals willing to scour every available resource for canines that have all the right stuff to be a success in Disaster Search.
And the process is working! We have been able to maintain our high standards and are bringing more dogs into the program than we have in years.
Over the last year, Canine Recruitment Manager Sylvia Stoney and her team have been making calls, sending emails and most importantly, visiting shelters throughout the country to not only look for potential candidates, but to build relationships and help shelters and rescues find careers for those hard-to-place or “unadoptable” dogs. As of July 1, we are officially 2/3 of the way to our goal of recruiting 30 special dogs who have what it takes to enter our training program at the NTC, which is something that many thought couldn’t be done.
Beginning this summer, you will start seeing these dogs graduating from our training program and being paired with first responders on U.S. task forces. These incredible creatures are receiving top-notch training at SDF.
While not every dog will successfully complete training, we are proud to share with complete confidence that no dog that enters our program will ever go back into the shelter system thanks to our Lifetime Care program – once rescued, they will never need to be rescued again.
As for those Recruits that do complete our program, they will leave our National Training Center with new human partners and all our confidence that when the call comes, these Search Teams have what it takes to save lives in their communities and around the world!
In the meantime, SDF staff and our army of Recruiters will continue to do all we can to recruit, train, and partner Search Dogs in order to meet the huge demand for this precious lifesaving resource!
Learn more about SDF’s goals and recruitment, training and partnering process here!
Trapper, a very muscular Yellow Lab with an outstanding personality, spent five days in the late summer of 2005 working in the devastation left behind by Hurricane Katrina along the Gulf Coast of the U.S. Deployed to Mississippi with his handler, Marshia Hall, as part of Florida Task Force 4, …
On June 25, 2017, two teenage girls walked away from the Marzelle Hill Transition Center in West Dallas, TX. One of the teens was taken into custody shortly after it was discovered they were gone, while another was believed to be hiding in the tall cattail reeds at the edge …
Turning twenty was a big milestone for the Search Dog Foundation, and there’s much to celebrate – including YOU and the thousands of people who have made donations, volunteered their time, and shared our story to help spread the word about our mission over the last two decades.
SDF wouldn’t be here without you, and we deeply value the personal role you’ve played in our successes.
All of us – Search Dogs, Handlers, Staff and Board alike – are feeling excited about our future, and the impact we can make through our combined efforts.
And now that we have moved to our new home at the National Training Center, we know the best is yet to come as we expand our programs and our ability to provide a critical resource to our communities and country. We can’t wait to share it all with you over the next twenty years!
