Since 1996, CNN hero Wilma Melville’s organization has been saving, training and deploying shelter dogs, giving them a new lease on life, and benefiting both man and dog in the process. The Search Dog Foundation locates shelter dogs with search dog potential. Once identified, the rescued dogs undergo extensive training before being paired with a firefighter or rescue worker who continues training while living, and eventually working with the dog.
“The Search Dog Foundation is the only group in the nation that gives a highly trained, professionally trained dog, to a handler and then stays with that handler for the rest of the team’s life together,” said Melville, 77. “We provide health insurance for the dog. … We provide food for the dog. The big thing is, we provide ongoing training for that dog and handler.”
To date, the group has now offered free training to 131 teams from across the nation. Search Dog Foundation teams have assisted with just about every natural disaster and catastrophe one could name since the mid-nineties, including last year’s Haiti earthquake, Joplin, Mo., Japan, and the September 11 attacks on New York’s twin towers.
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