search and rescue dogs Archives

Last Surviving 9/11 Ground Zero Search Dog Celebrates Sweet 16th

This story was originally posted Sept. 11, 2015. Bretagne passed away on June 6, nine months after celebrating her 16th birthday.

For nearly two weeks in September 2001, a Golden Retriever search dog named Bretagne, then 2 years old, dug through the rubble of the World Trade Center, searching in vain for survivors.

Fourteen years later, Bretagne (pronounced “Brittany”), who is now the last survivor of the nearly 100 search-and-rescue dogs dispatched to Ground Zero after the 9/11 attacks, celebrated her 16th birthday in style.

“After hearing Bretagne’s story and learning that her 16th birthday was coming up, there was no question in our minds that she deserved a Dog’s Best Day for the ages,” wrote Laura Hartle on BarkPost, which co-sponsored the celebration.

Bretagne and her pet parents, Denise and Randy Corliss, flew from their home in Cypress, Texas, to New York City late last month to enjoy that best day.

They stayed in a luxurious hotel suite courtesy of 1 Hotel Central Park. A two-layer birthday cake decorated with paw prints and biscuits was provided by Bubba Rose Biscuit Company. Bretagne was also awarded a Tiffany & Co. “Bone of the Dog Park” from Hudson River Park.

“Everywhere Bretagne went,” BarkPost notes in a video, “New Yorkers stopped in their tracks to thank her for her service.”

Last year, for the first time since 2001, Bretagne and Denise flew to New York and visited Ground Zero.

“Seeing this kind of took my breath away a bit,” Denise told TODAY.com in September 2014. “It’s so calm and peaceful now, unlike the chaos of before. After 9/11, everybody — all of us — felt such sadness. We all wanted to help. I just felt so honored that we were able to respond.”

The Corliss family has had Bretagne since she was a puppy. After Denise learned that civilians and their dogs can join federal emergency response teams to help out after a disaster, she and Bretagne began taking training classes together. She told TODAY.com she spent 20 to 30 hours a week training with Bretagne.

In 2000, she and Bretagne were accepted into Texas Task Force 1. Less than a year later, their very first deployment was to Ground Zero.

Bretagne worked 12-hour shifts for nearly 14 days. Like so many of the search dogs there, she became depressed when she found only human remains. To boost the dogs’ morale, some workers buried themselves in the rubble so the dogs could discover living people.

The human responders were more distraught than the dogs. At one point Bretagne walked over to a firefighter sitting on the ground. Denise called for her dog to come back, but Bretagne ignored her.

“I was surprised that she wasn’t listening to me — it was like she was flipping me the paw,” Denise told TODAY.com. “She went right to that firefighter and laid down next to him, and put her head on his lap.”

After Ground Zero, Denise and Bretagne worked at several other disaster sites, including New Orleans following Hurricane Katrina. Bretagne officially retired at the age of 9, but continued doing volunteer work as a service dog at an elementary school. She helps students with learning disabilities by being their audience as they read aloud to her.

Last year, Bretagne was a finalist for the Americane Humane Association Hero Dog Awards.

“She still has this attitude of putting her paw up and saying, ‘Put me in, coach!’” Denise told TODAY.com. “She absolutely loves it.”

“Bretagne’s Best Day” was documented in a touching video by BarkPost that shows this old girl is still a puppy at heart. Be sure to have plenty of tissues handy.

Happy Sweet 16th, Bretagne!

Photos via Twitter; YouTube

R.I.P. Bretagne, Last Surviving 9/11 Search-and-Rescue Dog

Bretagne (pronounced “Brittany”), a Golden Retriever who worked at Ground Zero in September 2001, trying in vain to find survivors after the attacks on the World Trade Center, died today. She was 16 years old.

She is believed to have been the last survivor of the 100 search-and-rescue dogs deployed there.

“She had lived longer and accomplished more than anybody,” Cy-Fair Volunteer Fire Department spokesman Capt. David Padovan told the New York Daily News.

As Bretagne made her final trip to the vet, firefighters lined up along the walkway, saluting her.

Her body was draped with a flag as it was transported to Texas A&M University, where a necroposy (an autopsy for animals) will be performed to study the effects of working at Ground Zero.

‘New Yorkers Stopped in Their Tracks to Thank Her for Her Service’

To celebrate her 16th birthday in September 2015, Bretagne was flown with her pet parents from their home in Cypress, Texas, to New York City, where she was treated to a party in her honor hosted by Barkpost.

“Everywhere Bretagne went,” BarkPost noted in a video, “New Yorkers stopped in their tracks to thank her for her service.”

In September 2014, Bretagne and Denise returned to the World Trade Center for the first time in 13 years.

“Seeing this kind of took my breath away a bit,” Denise told TODAY.com at the time. “It’s so calm and peaceful now, unlike the chaos of before. After 9/11, everybody — all of us — felt such sadness. We all wanted to help. I just felt so honored that we were able to respond.”

The Corliss family had welcomed Bretagne as a puppy in 1999. When Denise found out that civilians and their dogs can join federal emergency response teams to help out after a disaster, she and Bretagne began taking training classes together. In 2000, she and Bretagne were accepted into Texas Task Force 1.

Less than a year later, their very first deployment was to Ground Zero.

Bretagne worked 12-hour shifts for nearly two weeks. Along with the other search-and-rescue dogs, she became depressed when she found only human remains. To cheer the dogs, some workers buried themselves in the rubble so the dogs could discover someone alive.

Denise said her most memorable experience occurred as she and Bretagne waited in the staging area.

“Searchers would come by to pet her and to thank her, and would tell us their stories,” she told TODAY.com. “So it became an unexpected role of therapy dog. That’s what, among the other things, sticks out to me the most.”

After Ground Zero, Bretagne worked at several other major disaster sites, including New Orleans following Hurricane Katrina. She officially retired when she was 9, but continued to work as a service dog at an elementary school, helping students with learning disabilities by being their audience as they read aloud to her.

“She still has this attitude of putting her paw up and saying, ‘Put me in, coach!’” Denise told TODAY.com. “She absolutely loves it.”

As Bretagne’s health deteriorated, her pet parents created a bucket list for her. One of the items they scratched off was bringing Bretagne to the elementary school so she could say goodbye to the students she had helped.

Rest in peace, beautiful Bretagne. Thank you so much for your service.

Grab a tissue or 10 and watch this touching video by Barkpost that documented “Bretagne’s Best Day” last September.

Photo via Twitter

R.I.P. Boogie: LAFD Search Dog Dies in Fire at Handler’s House

AUG. 9, 2015 UPDATE: A luncheon will be held Aug. 20 at a Sherman Oaks fire station to raise funds for the purchase of a new search-and-rescue dog for Jason Chapman. Search-and-rescue puppies-in-training Toast and Zuko will be attending “to give lots of furry puppy love,” according to the Los Angeles Fire Department. For more information, visit the Los Angeles FD Facebook page.

While he was out on duty Tuesday night, a fire broke out at the two-story Rancho Cucamonga, Calif., home of Jason Chapman, a firefighter/paramedic with the Los Angeles Fire Department.

Matthew Hawker happened to be passing by the house when he saw smoke and heard Chapman’s wife, Joy, screaming. The 17-year-old stopped to help.

Joy, who had already jumped off a second-floor balcony, told Hawker her 5-year-old son, Brayden, was still inside the house.

Putting a ladder on top of a barbecue, Hawker was able to climb up to the balcony. He went inside and, through thick smoke, found the little boy as well as two dogs, and carried them out to safety.

“I’d do it again in a heartbeat,” Hawker told the San Bernardino Sun. “When I ran into the house, I wasn’t thinking about the danger. I just thought about getting that boy out.”

But one family member remained inside the burning house. Boogie, a 9-year-old, FEMA-certified search-and-rescue dog who worked for the LAFD with Jason, was in her kennel on the first floor.

Because of the intense heat and flames, firefighters had difficulty entering the house when they first arrived.

“Once inside, firefighters aggressively fought the fire and had it knocked down quickly, while crews simultaneously attempted to locate and rescue a dog that was trapped inside,” according to a City of Rancho Cucamonga news release.

Unfortunately, Boogie did not survive the fire. Firefighters respectfully covered the black Lab’s body with a U.S. flag and saluted her as she was removed from the house.

“Any loss in the Los Angeles Fire Department family weighs heavy on the hearts of all members,” the LAFD stated in a news release.

Boogie, whose full name was Sundown’s Boot Scootin’ Boogie, was as lively as her name implied, the LAFD said. She and Chapman had worked together for more than seven years. In 2008, they were dispatched to Texas, where they helped rescue people after Hurricane Gustav. In Los Angeles, among the many cases Boogie worked on were an apartment building collapse and a kidnapping.

“As one of the most experienced K9s on the team, she also served as a ‘trainer,’” the LAFD said. “New handlers worked with Boogie to develop critical skills before obtaining their own K9. Boogie was always ready for any chance to get out on the rubble pile.”

While Jason is mourning the loss of his beloved partner, he knows it could have been much worse if not for teenage hero Hawker.

“We do it for a living. We’re trained to do it as firemen, so it’s expected of us,” Jason told KABC.

“It’s not expected of a 17-year-old.”

Photos via LAFD.org

K9 Bloodhound Finds Utah Boy Who Fell into Manhole

“I was really scared … I thought I was going to miss Christmas,” six-year-old Kollin Bailey of Herriman, Utah, told the Deseret News.

Kollin was flying a kite Friday afternoon when he tripped and fell about 10 feet into a manhole. “I was looking back at my kite and I fell, then I blacked out. And when I opened my eyes, I was in there,” he said.

“I saw lots of sticks. Sticks were everywhere. And I think there was something, I think it was green, it was moving down there.”

As the hours passed, his aunt, who was babysitting Kollin, became very worried and called his mom, Shara Bailey. The West Valley City Police were notified of Kollin’s disappearance around 5:30 p.m. Officers and community members spread out around the area, about 25 miles south of Salt Lake City, and searched for the missing boy.

His bike was discovered near a water retention site, but no one noticed the open manhole or heard Kollin shouting for help.

That is, until K9 search dog Copper, a 100-pound Bloodhound who, like Kollin, is also 6 years old, was put into action. After getting a whiff of Kollin’s pillow, Copper led his handler, Sgt. Shane Matheson, to the manhole.

“To him it is just a game of hide and seek,” Matheson told the Deseret News. “It’s kind of a nice change of pace from finding bad guys to actually helping a family out.”

Matheson helped lift Kollin out of the manhole. The boy suffered a broken elbow and scratches, but is otherwise okay.

Someone — not a city worker — had apparently tampered with the manhole cover and removed it.

“These need to be bolted down, something, or (have) a lock on it,” Shara said. “There are three manholes in that area where kids play all the time.”

The evening after he was rescued, Kollin, with his arm in a sling, visited the police station to give his hero a reward. He gave Matheson and Copper big hugs — along with a bone-shaped treat for Copper.

“I never thought I’d owe my son’s life to a dog,” Shara said.

On its Facebook page, the West Valley City Police Department wrote, “We are grateful for our K9 teams and their ability to make a life-saving difference, as well as the partnership with other law-enforcement agencies that puts the safety of the public at top priority.”

Despite Kollin’s worries, thanks to Copper, he won’t be missing Christmas this year. And as for Copper? Kollin’s dad, Shawn Bailey, told the Deseret News, “I was telling everybody at the hospital last night, ‘That dog is going to get the biggest bone he’s ever gotten for Christmas.'”

Photo via Facebook

Last Surviving 9/11 Ground Zero Search Dog Returns to the World Trade Center

Thirteen years ago, a 2-year-old Golden Retriever worked tirelessly alongside nearly 100 other search-and-rescue dogs, digging through the rubble of the World Trade Center towers in hopes of finding survivors.

For the first time since the attacks, Bretagne (French for “Brittany”) and her handler/dog mom, Denise Corliss of Cypress, Texas, returned to Ground Zero this week.

“Seeing this kind of took my breath away a bit,” Corliss, who was interviewed by Tom Brokaw on NBC’s “TODAY” this morning, told TODAY.com yesterday.

“It’s so calm and peaceful now, unlike the chaos of before. After 9/11, everybody — all of us — felt such sadness. We all wanted to help. I just felt so honored that we were able to respond.”

Corliss has had Bretagne since 1999, when the Golden Retriever was just a puppy. After she found out that civilians and their dogs can join federal emergency response teams to help out after a disaster, she and Bretagne began taking training classes together. She told TODAY.com that she spent 20 to 30 hours a week training with Bretagne.

In 2000, she and Bretagne were accepted into Texas Task Force 1. Less than a year later, their very first deployment was to Ground Zero.

The human responders, of course, were as upset as the dogs. At one point Bretagne left Corliss’ side and went to a firefighter who was sitting on the ground. Corliss called for her dog to come back, but Bretagne ignored her.

“I was surprised that she wasn’t listening to me — it was like she was flipping me the paw,” Corliss told TODAY.com. “She went right to that firefighter and laid down next to him, and put her head on his lap.”

When Brokaw asked Corliss about her most memorable experience at Ground Zero, she replied that it didn’t occur while searching through the debris, but as she and Bretagne waited in the staging area.

“Searchers would come by to pet her and to thank her, and would tell us their stories,” Corliss said. “So it became an unexpected role of therapy dog. That’s what, among the other things, sticks out to me the most.”

Veterinarian Cindy Otto, who treated Ground Zero’s search dogs, told TODAY.com they frequently brought smiles to weary firefighters.

“Those dogs brought the power of hope,” she said. “They removed the gloom for just an instant — and that was huge, because it was a pretty dismal place to be.”

Many animal lovers were concerned about the long-term health of the dogs working at Ground Zero. However, Dr. Otto, who in 2007 established the Penn Vet Working Dog Center to train and study search-and-rescue dogs, made a surprising discovery. After years of studying these dogs, she found they actually outlived dogs who didn’t work at Ground Zero. (In addition to Bretagne, there is one other surviving 9/11 search-and-rescue dog: Morgan, a 15-year-old English Springer Spaniel who was deployed to Staten Island after the attacks.)

After Ground Zero, Corliss and Bretagne worked at several other major disaster sites, including New Orleans following Hurricane Katrina. Bretagne officially retired when she was 9.

Even though she’s now at the age when most dogs enjoy lots of long naps, she continues to work. She’s a service dog at an elementary school, helping students with learning disabilities by being their audience as they read aloud to her.

“She still has this attitude of putting her paw up and saying, ‘Put me in, coach!’” Corliss told TODAY.com. “She absolutely loves it.”

Bretagne is one of eight finalists for the 2014 American Humane Association Hero Dog Awards, which will be held Sept. 27 in Los Angeles. You can vote for your favorite finalists through Sept. 15 at the American Humane Association website.

Photos via Facebook