Lance Corporal Tanner Burhoe with his namesake Search Dog Tanner
When ten-year-old Stephen Tanner Burhoe experienced the sense of fear that so many of us did following the attack on the Twin Towers, it gave him a sense of security to see SDF’s dogs on the news, working diligently with their handlers.
Inspired by the dogs on TV, Tanner grabbed an empty Pringles can, decorated his little red wagon with American flags, and went door-to-door in his neighborhood with his Golden Retriever puppy to collect money for the dogs. Tanner’s mother, Sherri, recalls, “when he said he wanted to help the dogs I thought it a sweet notion but when he returned with fistfuls of cash, I thought, how wonderful… but what am I going to do with the money?!” She called the Red Cross, who referred her to SDF, and they drove to our office with the money they had collected. Over the next week, they made several trips to the SDF office with donations they had collected.
Because we were so grateful that SDF’s mission prompted young Tanner to help us make a difference in the world, we decided to honor him by bestowing his name upon one of our own.
In December 2012, “Jack” was recruited from Golden Gate Labrador Retriever Rescue in San Francisco. Originally discovered wandering on a golf course in Salinas, starving and infested with parasites, a local woman nursed him back to health before taking him to the rescue. Adopted out to three different families, but always returned because he was “too much dog” for the average pet owner to handle, staff at the rescue contacted SDF when they realized that this beautiful yellow Labrador had all the tenacity, strength, and drive to achieve greatness as a Search Dog.
Upon arrival at the NTC, Jack was renamed Tanner, in honor of a tenacious young boy with a heart of gold. When Tanner graduated from training in December 2013, he was paired with Maddie Warner of Utah Task Force 1 (UT-TF1). The day that Tanner and Maddie made their way to Utah to start the next chapter in their careers, Lance Corporal Tanner Burhoe was en route to Japan and Korea -- his first deployment. Lance Corporal Burhoe was able to see Tanner one last time while on leave the month prior to his pairing.
We couldn’t be more proud of Lance Corporal Tanner Burhoe for his unwavering service to our great nation. Nor could we be more proud that canine Tanner, once an abandoned castoff, has found his place also serving our country like his human counterpart. Both of them are forever heroes in our hearts, and we wish them long and healthy careers!