Mason was found roaming the cold streets of Aberdeen, South Dakota, when a good Samaritan discovered him and took him to the Aberdeen Area Humane Society. Mason was very well-behaved, so it was surprising to staff that he didn’t have an ID tag, and no one came to claim him. When shelter staff realized how much Mason loves to play with toys, they contacted the South Dakota Canine Center, an SDF recruitment partner. Mason was evaluated, and although there were some concerns about his leash reactivity and hunt focus, his tactile nerve strength and social intelligence were sound enough to warrant enrolling him in our search training program.
At our National Training Center, Mason demonstrated strong toy possession, a great trait to build on for a search dog. Mason loves toys so much that you’ll rarely find him without one in his mouth as he trots around on his adventures on campus. He really took to search training, and his body language when tracking odor is beautiful; you can almost visualize the scent plume!
This handsome, speckled boy has been doing fantastic in his rubble searches and recently moved up to the senior class. He passed his human aggression skill proficiency test and was also part of a rubble search and fitness demo for a group of students visiting our campus. Mason has been doing great cooperating with new trainers and progressing well in his other elements and will be in the next group of search dogs to participate in the mid-point assessment with potential handlers. We all love this boy and have every confidence that he will move on to graduation and eventual pairing with a first responder partner.