It’s the end of an era for a 12-year-old golden retriever named Sam, as his rescue career comes to a close this week.
Sam is Penticton Fire Chief Larry Watkinson’s canine companion and trained disaster response dog. The pair belongs to the Burnaby Urban Search and Rescue team.
“It’s a light urban search and rescue team that is rapidly able to deploy in 48 hours to international, domestic, catastrophic events being in an urban environment. Where there’s building collapsed or otherwise and our team can go in and search,” said Watkinson.
“I’m proud of him and I’m proud of the work that he’s done. Although it’s been short-lived experiences over a 10-year career with this team.”
The partnership began after a friend suggested Watkinson train his next dog for disaster response after the fire chief lost his Dalmatian a decade ago.
Research led Watkinson to choose a purebred golden retriever.
“Golden purebreds are a very common kind of search and rescue dog and have all the demeanour that goes with it. They have to have zero aggression — Sam is not very aggressive and is very lovey,” he said.
“He also has the nose for the work, too, and agility.”
Sam started off with basic training before moving on to more advanced learning. According to Watkinson, the K9 picked up the work quickly.
“It was a game first as a puppy, teaching him how to indicate, and bark, and be rewarded with play and treats,” said Watkinson.
“Then as he developed intellect when it comes to the search component — being able to identify scent, narrow it down to a location, indicates and then be able to show his handler where the point of scent is so that the team, the firefighters could come in and start working on the rubble pile.”
The pair has been training side by side ever since and has responded to two international missions together.
In 2015, they were deployed to Nepal and then in 2019 responded to the Bahamas following Hurricane Dorian.
“Sam had a really good experience in Nepal working within the International Search and Rescue Organization Association and was able to interact with other highly experienced canines when he was new. We learned a lot there,” said Watkinson.
“We were able to deploy that expertise also after the Nepal experience in the Bahamas where he was very successful in his human remains detection work.”
Working alongside Sam in intense situations has been a ‘career highlight’ for Watkinson.
Sam is more than just a well-trained pup and the decision to retire him was not easy for the fire chief.
“The connection you create and build with your canine and your team members is something that is hard to even explain because there’s a bond that is really unbreakable,” he added.
“I realize now he’s at his age, it’s unsafe for him to be working in those types of environments and he’s getting some cataracts and he’s getting a little slower on his big hikes. I figured that before I commit to anything for my team that it’s best that move on without or with the new dogs on the team that pop now.”