If you think your dog’s obsession with fetching a tennis ball is impressive, you should meet the pups at the National Disaster Search Dog Foundation (SDF) in Southern California. These dogs don’t just play; they save lives. Believe it or not, it all started with a Labrador named Murphy and one woman’s determination to make sure disaster response in America had more than just good intentions behind it.
And boy, did she ever deliver on that.
In the wake of the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing, Wilma Melville deployed to the scene of the explosion with her pup Murphy and quickly realized something vital was missing: a trained canine disaster response force. “They did the best work that they possibly could at that moment,” says Denise Sanders, SDF’s Senior Director of Communications & Search Team Operations. “But she knew there needed to be more, and she knew that they needed to be highly trained — that we needed to elevate disaster responses, specifically canine disaster response in America.”…