Canines at Home in the Ruins

How many times has a family stared in slack-jawed wonder as the adorable new family dog tears around and around the yard like a caffeinated dervish, joyously destroying absolutely everything in sight? They may be looking at a future Disaster Search Dog in waiting. As National Disaster Search Dog Foundation’s (SDF) Wilma Melville has said (with her usual economy of language) – “These dogs need to work. When left alone in a suburban backyard, they destroy the place.” Melville knew that dogs in shelters were often remanded there by families for having exhibited the very character traits that will make them successful rescuers – if not calming, slipper-fetching companions.

In 1996, FEMA-Certified Canine Search Specialist Wilma Melville launched SDF to address once and for all the shortfall of rescue canines in the United States. The year before, she and her partner – a black Lab named Murphy – had spent a week poring over the smoldering rubble of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building bombing site. She was struck by how few rescue canines there were to search the site for survivors. In fact, only 15 such certified canine-human teams existed in the country at that time, all volunteers like herself. 

Melville had an epiphany. Why not formalize and optimize canine recruitment and training, partner the dogs with working rescue personnel already well-versed in disaster response? She envisioned a positive feedback loop of rescue: the unwanted dogs rescued from shelters would themselves become trained rescuers. The idea had legs; four legs.

The National Disaster Search Dog Foundation is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit based in Santa Paula, California, which is also the location of the National Training Center – 145 sprawling acres of collapsed structures, large-area rubble searches, train and vehicle wrecks, and wilderness ravines; scenarios that can be reconfigured to keep the dogs’ rescue acuity sharp. 

Melville’s brainstorm has changed the dynamic for canine-assisted rescue in disaster areas, domestically and globally. Do all recruited (rescued) dogs pass the training? Most do, not all. But SDF’s dogs are not a “rescue commodity.” They are the spirit of the place. Denise Sanders – Senior Director of Communications & Search Team Operations at SDF – explains. 

“It’s not just about the disaster search program,” Sanders says. “Once rescued, these dogs will never have to be rescued again. That is our lifetime care promise to any dog that enters our program.” As they move through the training process, the dogs need to navigate tight spaces, squeeze through small openings, walk backwards up a massive mound of rubble. Some dogs opt out, others can’t get enough. 

“Some truly love it, and they just dance across the rubble! And then there are others that seem to say, ‘Well, if you really want me to … and we’re not going to make them do it at all.” SDF is a rescue dog’s university, family, and best friend. Forever. 

“We’ve significantly grown our network of career change options and adoptions,” Sanders says. “It’s about helping each and every dog. We want them to enjoy it. So we say, thank you for being willing, but maybe let’s try something you’ll actually love.”