Forrest & Tom Simons

This handsome black Labrador Retriever found himself with a rescue group in Oregon when his former owner’s living situation changed abruptly. When the rescue saw his working dog potential, they contacted SDF to begin the evaluation process. After his testing videos were approved by SDF’s training team, Forrest was transported to SDF’s National Training Center in Santa Paula, CA, by one of our volunteer pilots who shared that Forrest jumped right in the plane as if it were just a funny-looking car!

Forrest is quite a large dog, and trainers were impressed with how gracefully he moved across the rubble pile during his formal evaluation at our campus, which he passed beautifully. He spent nearly a year working with our staff and preparing for the important role of disaster search and rescue canine.

On May 28, 2021, Forrest graduated from our training program when he was paired with Captain Tom Simons of the Salt Lake City Fire Department. The team are members of Utah Task Force 1 and achieved certification with the Federal Emergency Management Agency on April 16, 2022. Certification is a requirement for any canine team to deploy with their task force on federal missions.

Until the call to action comes, Forrest and Tom continue to train regularly with their task force teammates!