American Rottweiler Club Heroism Award
The American Rottweiler Club proudly awards the Heroism Award to Pine River’s A Turbulent Eddy, CGC, NASAR AREA II, & HRD “Eddy.”
(Ed-dy /ˈedē/ noun: a circular movement of water, air, or smoke)
What are the qualities of a good search dog?
A good search dog is intelligent and obedient, with a high hunt drive and endurance to tirelessly pursue their subject. They are athletic and agile, capable of navigating rough terrain with ease. Biddable, they are eager to please and work well with their handler. Confidence and fearlessness enable them to face challenging situations head-on. Their ability to focus and ignore irrelevant scents ensures they stay on task during searches. These qualities are often found in breeds from the Working, Hunting, and Sporting groups.
What makes a SAR K9 a hero?
Search and Rescue Teams can use several types of search resources. Cell phone triangulation, inReach devices, drones, infra-red imaging, helicopters, UTVs, Ground pounders, K9s, boats, rafts, lost person behavior studies and more. A successful search mission is a result of the team’s effective use of their resources. Among these, a mission-ready K9 team is invaluable due to their ability to detect scent and cover large areas quickly. A SAR K9 must be able to work in various environments, including wilderness areas, disaster sites, or urban settings.
It takes many hours of training to prepare a search dog for certification. A SAR canine must certify in their various search discipline before they can be deployed on a mission. However, the training does not stop there. Typically, formal K9 team training occurs weekly. It is important that training occurs in a variety of areas, using a variety of subjects and sources for the dogs to find. Hundreds of hours go into improving and maintaining a SAR K9’s Mission Readiness.
*A Mission Ready SAR K9 is a hero by default. *
Eddy’s Story
Eddy began his journey as a search dog when he was just a young puppy enrolled in obedience classes at the local obedience club. During one of these classes, a K9 search group conducted a demonstration, which inspired Eddy’s owner/handler to pursue this job with purpose for his young Rottweiler.
Eddy started out as a trailing dog. However, there was a challenge: when Eddy was on the scent he would pull like a freight train. Additionally, he tended to air scent and cut corners, which made him a natural fit for Area search.
A typical weekend for Eddy is one day hiking in the mountains and one day training with the K9 team. Once Eddy certified for Area search, he was called out for several missions. Shortly after certifying for Area, he added Human Remains Detection (HRD) to his credentials. Eddy has been deployed on various types of searches, including missing children, nursing home walkaways, drowning victims, and missing hikers. Remarkably, Eddy always seems to know the difference between a mission and training.
*Eddy mission ready. *
Overcoming the Odds
In early October 2021, while hiking with his Rottweiler family, Eddy began to have a sneezing attack. It was later determined that he had inhaled a foxtail from the grassy meadow he had been running in. Thursday November 11, 2021, Eddy became very ill. He was rushed to his Vet who in turn sent him to the Emergency Vet in Colorado Springs. The Emergency Vet staff met him in the parking lot where they immediately took him into ICU and started a chest tube. Eddy was stabilized that night, and the following morning an MRI revealed a large abscess in his lung near his heart. The prognosis was grave.
The on-call surgeon had been bitten in the face the night before so most of Friday was spent looking for a surgeon that would perform the surgery over the weekend. When the search for a surgeon had been exhausted the injured on-call surgeon was persuaded by the internist to perform the surgery. The surgery was scheduled for 1pm on Saturday. However, at approximately 9am the abscess burst, and Eddy underwent a four-hour surgery to remove the auxiliary lobe of his right lung. Eddy was given less than a 50% chance of recovery.
After the surgery, the vet indicated that the following 24 hours would determine Eddy’s fate. If he came through the initial recovery, he would need to stay in the ICU for another 3 or 4 days. Surprisingly, the following day, the vet, with 20 years of experience, stated that he had never seen anything like Eddy’s recovery and had no reason to keep him any longer. Eddy recovered quickly and was back at work in less than a month, beating the odds due to his strength, condition, and will.
*Eddy Mission Ready*
A notable mission that Eddy assisted on.
