It was with great sadness that the Search Dog Foundation (SDF) family said goodbye to Search Dog Jazz last week as he crossed the Rainbow Bridge. After seven years with his handler Luis Garcia, and 11 deployments as part of Baja California Task Force 3, Jazz was a wonderful ambassador for the urban search and rescue program and will be greatly missed.
Born in October 2000, Jazz came to SDF from Golden Retriever Rescue of Wisconsin, which also sent us Search Dogs Andy and Cody. After completing his training at Sundowners, Jazz was paired with Luis in March 2003—a day that Luis remembered well throughout their career: “I remember driving up to Sundowners in Gilroy with my fellow handlers. As we had the first contact with the canines, for some reason Jazz caught my attention; he was so full of energy that it worked like a magnet on me.”
This close bond was apparent throughout their career as Luis and Jazz responded to 11 deployments in Baja California, including several earthquakes, landslides and building collapses. Most recently, in early April 2010, Luis and Jazz deployed with fellow Canine Disaster Search Team Fidel Gomez and Krissy, to search for anyone trapped beneath the rubble following a large earthquake in the Mexicali region. In recognition of their efforts and career, the teams met the president of their country and received his thanks for their dedication to the urban search and rescue program as well as for their service to Mexico.
Between their commitment to weekly training sessions and their many deployments, Luis and Jazz set the bar high for Mexico’s newly developed Baja California Task Force 3 (BC-TF3), which is similar to FEMA’s task forces in structure and deployment procedures. Jazz will be sorely missed but his legacy lives on in the work his fellow Canine Disaster Search Teams and BC-TF3 have done and will continue to do in future deployments.