KTLA | Rescue Dog Being Put Down Receives Hero’s Farewell After Saving Lives of Haiti, Japan Earthquake Victims
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Search Dog Skye is a finalist in American Humane Hero Dog Awards in the Search and Rescue category
Thanks to your voting, Search Dog Skye is one of three semifinalists for the Hero Dog Awards in the Search and Rescue category!
Now, we need to keep voting daily to make sure that he’s the winner in the SAR category and possibly wins the official Hero Dog title this year!
Visit: http://herodogawards.org/dog/skye/
Scroll to the bottom and fill in your info.
Check the box that proves you’re not a robot then click “VOTE!”
You can vote everyday between May 16 and July 11. Thanks for your support and best of luck to Search Dog Skye!
Organization trains shelter dogs to respond to disasters
CNN | Impact Your World: K9 handler creates a foundation that trains shelter dogs to respond to disasters
To The Rescue
VC Reporter | Santa Paula-based Search Dog Foundation teams pivotal across the world, at home
Thomas Fire damages search dog training center in Santa Paula
VC Star | Thomas Fire damages search dog training center in Santa Paula; canines are OK
Bark Alert Magazine – Fall 2017
The phrase “perfect storm” is used quite often to describe moments when many seemingly unrelated things come together to create a unique, challenging, and memorable event. Here at SDF, this past month and a half has been quite literally a storm, with four major disasters rocking communities throughout North America.
More than half of our active SDF-trained Search Teams from across the country deployed for multiple hurricanes and a massive earthquake. At the same time, SDF officially opened the gates of the National Training Center (NTC) on September 23, an event that was planned long before doppler radar warned us of the storms.
Even while we celebrated this major milestone, our hearts continued to go out to those affected by these disasters, many of whom will be recovering from the impact for years to come. At our Grand Opening we took a moment of silence to think of those in need and to honor all those who deployed to help in the aftermath, both two- and four-legged.
Each of these events – from the SDF Teams serving in four major deployments to the opening of the NTC – is a testament to the ability of our SDF Family, including you, to advance our life-saving mission.
Thank you for being with us every step of the way and for being Part of the Search!
—The SDF Staff
Meet the L.A. Firefighters and Rescue Dogs Helping Mexico City Recover From the Quake
LA Weekly | After the massive earthquake struck Mexico City last week, a team of Los Angeles firefighters packed their bags and traveled to the areas hardest hit by the temblor.
Bark Alert – Summer 2017
Don’t miss any of the action so far in 2017!
We are so excited to bring you closer than ever before to the action in this summer’s Bark Alert! From our newest initiative with The Rachael Ray Foundation to our first-ever Deployment Simulation at the National Training Center (NTC), we are thrilled to share these latest and greatest Search Dog stories and in-depth, behind-the-scenes features on the work that YOU make possible through your generous support!
Thanks for being Part of the Search!
Meet Our 20 Canine Recruits In Training!
As of July 1, SDF is thrilled to share that we have an incredible 20 Search Dog Recruits currently in training at our National Training Center! See the full PDF of our newest Recruits here!
Thanks to the pioneering efforts of many over the last few decades, including our Founder Wilma Melville, shelter and rescue dogs are no longer considered castaways. It took some time, but they have earned a well-deserved reputation as potentially valuable lifesaving resources in Disaster Search work!
Often the dogs that end up in shelters have exactly the characteristics sought after in this field: high drive, toy obsession, and athleticism that has them jumping fences. In recent years, it has become so popular for agencies to adopt shelter dogs with potential to work in certain fields that they have become harder to find.
So SDF had to reassess our process and evolve again.
Keeping our main focus on giving shelter and rescue dogs a new “leash on life,” SDF has developed a network of Regional Canine Recruiters across the nation. These are canine savvy and working dog knowledgeable individuals willing to scour every available resource for canines that have all the right stuff to be a success in Disaster Search.
And the process is working! We have been able to maintain our high standards and are bringing more dogs into the program than we have in years.
Over the last year, Canine Recruitment Manager Sylvia Stoney and her team have been making calls, sending emails and most importantly, visiting shelters throughout the country to not only look for potential candidates, but to build relationships and help shelters and rescues find careers for those hard-to-place or “unadoptable” dogs. As of July 1, we are officially 2/3 of the way to our goal of recruiting 30 special dogs who have what it takes to enter our training program at the NTC, which is something that many thought couldn’t be done.
Beginning this summer, you will start seeing these dogs graduating from our training program and being paired with first responders on U.S. task forces. These incredible creatures are receiving top-notch training at SDF.
While not every dog will successfully complete training, we are proud to share with complete confidence that no dog that enters our program will ever go back into the shelter system thanks to our Lifetime Care program – once rescued, they will never need to be rescued again.
As for those Recruits that do complete our program, they will leave our National Training Center with new human partners and all our confidence that when the call comes, these Search Teams have what it takes to save lives in their communities and around the world!
In the meantime, SDF staff and our army of Recruiters will continue to do all we can to recruit, train, and partner Search Dogs in order to meet the huge demand for this precious lifesaving resource!
Learn more about SDF’s goals and recruitment, training and partnering process here!
The Quest 2016
Don’t miss any of the incredible moments that marked our 20th Anniversary Year!
Turning twenty was a big milestone for the Search Dog Foundation, and there’s much to celebrate – including YOU and the thousands of people who have made donations, volunteered their time, and shared our story to help spread the word about our mission over the last two decades.
SDF wouldn’t be here without you, and we deeply value the personal role you’ve played in our successes.
All of us – Search Dogs, Handlers, Staff and Board alike – are feeling excited about our future, and the impact we can make through our combined efforts.
And now that we have moved to our new home at the National Training Center, we know the best is yet to come as we expand our programs and our ability to provide a critical resource to our communities and country. We can’t wait to share it all with you over the next twenty years!