This past week I was invited to attend a special demonstration by the National Disaster Search Dog Foundation. I have to say, these dogs are incredible. There are so many things I didn’t know about how these dogs are acquired, trained and maintain their focus. The demonstration showed how solid the dogs are in their basic training, how they teach them to find a hidden person, how they work with them to teach them how to master more difficult terrain and the absolute joy these dogs seem to have when they’re “working”.

I hope you enjoy some of the many photos I took and the 15 things that I learned:

1. National Search Dog Foundation dogs are adopted from shelters and rescues nationwide. Often the dogs that are chosen are ones that have been turned in because they keep escaping from their yards. It shows they already are using their brain for how to get around barriers – important for a dog searching through rubble. One such dog was Huck who, even after he got into their program continued to amaze them. Once he got into training, the trainers started to think they were going crazy because he would end up in kennels other than the ones that they placed him in. They soon learned that Huck could open gates, undo latches and climb fences. He wouldn’t necessarily go anywhere, just head out to visit other dogs in other kennels and often even put himself back in his own kennel when he was done.
2. It takes a year of Continue reading »