Former Search Dogs

 Talon:

From Tim Burns, Talon's handler:

I  was truly blessed with a great spirit like Talon to accompany me for so many years.  Talon did have incredible abilities to find missing people, but what really enabled most of his missing persons finds was his spirit to keep working well past when others, and even I had given up.  I can remember many of his finds where I was ready to give up and call it a night, but he was still willing to go, so we kept going long enough to make the find.  This spirit kept Talon working well past when most dogs retired. (Almost 12).

Talon throughout his career has assisted law enforcement at local, state, and federal levels.  He has been certified for wilderness and human remains detection with a number of organizations both private and law enforcement based. He has been on well over 100 searches with over 30 finds to his credit.

Talon was honored with Red Cross Everyday Hero Award in their Animal Rescue category (credited for saving lives through volunteer efforts).  He was named search dog of the year several times, received a lifetime achievement award, and received many letters of commendation from families, law enforcement agencies, congressmen, and others.   His latest award was the AKC Ace Award honorable mention in the Search and Rescue category.

Beyond all the search work Talon was always there as a close companion, whether retrieving (pheasants, ducks, frisbees, balls, kongs, squeaky toys,…), skijoring, morning runs and walks, swimming, or just hanging out. 

His legacy follows him with the many puppies he has raised, and the many dogs he has helped teach what he enjoyed the most in his life, pleasing his human companions and friends.  Lucky for me Rio has taken the baton from Talon, as we both thank him very much for guiding us forward.

Rocky Mountain Talon;
  Born October 19, 1995, last re-find April 9, 2010

Argus:

Argus, trained as a disaster response dog played an important role in many missing persons searches. Responsible for searching buildings, junkyards and small wilderness sectors, his work freed the far ranging wilderness search dogs to work the large sectors.

Because his kidneys were compromised, he was lost following the melamine incident of 2007. He is missed.

Lilly:

Lilly, an in-training search dog had to retire due to health issues. Her nose had the desire to do the job; her body couldn’t muster the necessary stamina.

She remains with her family and serves as chief babysitter for their young son.

Copper:

Copper was a human remains detection specialist dog skilled in both the search for missing person and in the art of historical search work.

A dog lost too soon, Copper succumbed to the cardio-myopathy when he was seven years old. His love of the job had him working until the day he died.

He is greatly missed.

Teris:

Teris started his disaster training with Michigan Task Force One and Ohio Task Force One as a puppy in the summer of 2007. He was preparing to offer live person specialty support to Michigan Search and Rescue.

However, at 17-months, Teris died as a result of complications from surgery. 

His joy and carpe diem attitude is greatly missed by both his handler and the team. Teris never met a challenge – or a day the he didn’t embrace with vigor.

Charlie:

Certified in wilderness airscent and a veteran of many searches, Charlie’s handler decided to retire him when he started to slow down.

Charlie loved his job, but has moved on to a new position patrolling his yard and searching for missing deer antlers.

  Cota:

After over ten months of fighting osteosarcoma, Cota let us know it was time to set him free to run with all his old friends.

Cota came to us after spending the first year of his life mostly in a crate. I always said he was learning delayed because it took him longer to learn new tasks, but once he learned them he never forgot them. I'll never forget how, during his early training, if the victim was quite a ways from where I was, he'd come running back, give me his indication then stand there looking at me as if to say 'why did I do that?' We worked really hard on helping him remember where he'd left the ''victim'. But he excelled at boat work - one task we didn't have to teach him. He seemed to instinctively understand what was needed when he was working on a boat.

Cota loved people. On the scene of a missing person he would make the rounds and stand stoically while relatives and friends of the missing person would pet and hug him. He always seemed to just know who needed a fur-fix the most. At demos he would disappear behind a wall of children. He became a Delta Society Pet Partner and he had a great time having children read to him, again seeming to know which struggling child needed him to flip their book and lighten the mood.

Cota was a tireless worker and a great friend. He taught me much, but mostly he was my partner - a dog I trusted in every aspect of his life. A dog I loved.

Run strong and free Cota. We'll meet again some day.

Your Grateful Partner, Rayanne Chamberlain