Rachel A. Bow

From Rescued to Rescuer: Founded in 1996, the National Disaster Search Dog Foundation (SDF) is a 501(c)(3) non-profit, non-governmental organization based in Santa Paula, California. Our mission is to strengthen disaster response in America; SDF recruits dogs from shelters and breed rescue groups, gives them professional training, and partners them with firefighters and other first responders to find live people trapped in the wreckage following disasters. We go to great lengths to find Labradors, Golden Retrievers, Border Collies, Belgian Malinois and mixes of those breeds with the exceptional characteristics required in a Search Dog: intense drive, athleticism, energy and focus. The traits that can make dogs unsuitable as family pets and land them in a shelter—intense energy and extreme drive—are exactly the qualities required in a Search Dog. SDF offers these amazing animals what they crave: a job! No matter what happens, the Search Dog Foundation promises that once rescued, no dog in our program will ever need to be rescued again.