The recently released Dog Heroes of September 11th is the first major publication to salute the canines that served the nation in the recovery missions following the terrorists’ attacks on America. The book provides an excellent overview of the mission and requirements of these search and rescue dogs and serves as a lasting tribute to these noble American heroes.

In addition to purchasing the book, there’s another way to recognize four-legged heroes. Nutro Natural Choice dog food is sponsoring a contest to elect a canine search team to represent the face of the Natural Choice Brand.

The candidates are:

Annie, a Yellow Lab who came to Search Dog Foundation and was eventually paired with firefighter Shani Richeson with the Sacramento Metro Fire Department in November 2007.

Mace, s Yellow Lab from Fremont, California, who was found tied him to a railroad track, sprayed with mace and left to die. He was found and taken to an animal shelter, where he was scheduled to be euthanized. Mace was rescued by one of SDF’s firefighters and renamed Ace. By the end of six months of training, he was partnered with Teresa Ortenberger with California Task Force 7. Teresa and Ace eventually achieved FEMA Certification together. In September of 2005 they were deployed to Hurricane Katrina.

Rob Cima, a fellow SDF handler and Assistant Fire Chief with El Dorado County Fire near Sacramento, lost his Search Dog Harley to cancer in November of 2006. Teresa had two certified dogs (Ace and Remi), and out of respect and admiration for Rob, decided to give Ace to him. They were an excellent match, and in March of 2007, Rob and Ace achieved FEMA Advanced Certification.

Jester, an Aussie-border collie mix, is now paired with Davis Doty of Yorba Linda, CA, working with California Task Force 5 in Orange County. They are currently training for FEMA Certification.

Cast your vote here.

• How to Pick a Name For Your Dog [/caption]For you aspiring dog trainers out there, you should be aware that there's one word your dog will pick up more quickly than all of the others: its own name. Because we'll use a dog's name so frequently even when we're not consciously training the dog, the dog begins to......
• Train Yourself, Train Your Dog [/caption]For many of you who have tried to train your dog with mixed results, you might be wondering if you have a "faulty dog." For many people, though there might not be such as thing as a "faulty dog," they do feel as if somehow their dog is special in......
• Getting Your Dog to Respond to Calls [/caption]If you've ever called your dog using a command phrase like "come here!" only to watch your dog give you a blank stare like you're an idiot, then this article is for you. We're going to learn exactly why dogs give you this blank stare, and how you can fix......
• Should You Use Selective Ignorance to Help Train Your Dog? [/caption]One mistake that many people make with dogs is that they let the novelty of a dog's presence take over their better judgment. While it's fine and healthy to treat dogs with affection, this isn't always the greatest way to train them. Instead, you'll want to learn to be selective......
• Why Your Dog Isn't Your Friend [/caption]Your dog isn't your friend. This may fly in the face of conventional wisdom - "dog is man's best friend" - but a better word for a dog is "companion." Why is this? Is it because I hate dogs? Hardly. When it comes to dog training, one of the first......

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.