Team Info
Task Force: California Task Force 2 (CA-TF2)
Agency: Los Angeles County Fire Department
Level: In training to certify
Search Dog Info
Breed: German Shepherd mix
Sex: Female
Born: April 28, 2021
Recruited from the Humane Society of Truckee-Tahoe
Sponsors: The Sandra Trinka Revocable Trust represented by Theresa McConville, Jeff Moscaret and Valerie Tesauro
Greta was found as a stray and taken to the Humane Society of Truckee-Tahoe (HSTT), where staff noticed Greta’s friendliness, confidence, and tennis ball obsession and mentioned these characteristics when they posted Greta on their Facebook page. An SDF volunteer saw the post and alerted our Recruitment Team, and so did the shelter because they had worked with SDF before. Everyone who saw Greta seemed to think she had the makings of a search dog!
Greta was accepted into the program, and trainers discovered this petite Shepherd was a sweet, spicy mix wrapped in a fun little package! She learned quickly and soon moved up through the program. A fun, social dog who loves to hunt and tug with her hidden person, Greta continued to grow in training, improving her search skills and emotional maturity. She graduated from search training in May 2024 and was paired with Arby Fields of California Task Force 2 on June 1, 2024.
Before Arby Fields became a firefighter, he was a professional baseball player for the Chicago White Sox and the Seattle Mariners. When his baseball career ended, his uncle, a retired LA County fire captain, encouraged Arby to become a firefighter.
Arby’s decision to join the fire service was heavily influenced by an experience in 2005, when wildfires came through his hometown. As the fires blazed, Arby’s father received a desperate phone call from a neighbor who needed help. When his father didn’t return, Arby was alarmed and went out the front door to see if he could find him. Arby says, “I remember the wind blowing so hard it sounded like a freight train. The smoke was so thick it was tough to see ten feet in any direction. Debris was falling from the sky; some still lit on fire. It seemed like it was raining fireballs.” Arby didn’t know the conditions had worsened since his father left, and firefighters had blocked off the road to his house, preventing his father’s return. Terrified, Arby says he prayed, asking God to keep his dad safe and to please help him. Moments later, there was banging on the front door. It was a firefighter who told Arby that everything was going to be ok. “At that moment,” Arby recalls, “I knew I wanted to be a firefighter.”
When Arby joined the fire service, he wasn’t aware they had canine handlers, but he set about achieving that goal once he learned it could be his reality. He heard about SDF and applied to the Handler Training Program, where he worked with Greta and began to connect with her. One day during training, one of the instructors used Greta to demonstrate an agility skill, and afterward, Greta ran straight to Arby and jumped on him. He says, “I knew right then the bond had been created.”
The next steps for Arby and Greta will be to pass their foundational skills and certifications. After that, Arby says he is excited about what the future holds for them as partners. “I envision that we will be a light to people on US and foreign ground and that we will achieve great things together.”