Ventura County is home to the largest facility in the United States for training search and rescue dogs.

The National Disaster Search Dog Foundation (SDF) is a nonprofit, non-governmental organization based in Santa Paula. Their mission is to strengthen disaster response in America by rescuing and recruiting dogs and partnering them with firefighters and other first responders to find people buried alive in the wreckage of disasters.

People all over the world saw the disaster teams’ work firsthand in live news reports of the recent Montecito mudslide. Eighteen disaster teams (dogs and their handlers) worked feverishly to locate people trapped by mud and debris. The teams brought back lessons and experiences that will be extremely useful in future deployments. Lessons learned will be incorporated into the program so that everyone is trained and ready to go with the latest findings when the next disaster occurs.

But something else was going on while the 18 teams were working in Montecito.

On December 4 when the Thomas Fire broke out, SDF staff quickly realized that their beautiful new training facility was in the path of the flames. As Denise Sanders, communications and development officer of SDF put it, “We were used to working the disaster, not being part of it.”

Before the Thomas Fire started, SDF had planned a training of four new disaster teams. Dogs and handlers were onsite. Everyone escaped to the Crowne Plaza for the night. The next day plans were made to move to the Ventura Marriott. At the Marriott, while the air quality was still poor, obedience training went on in the conference rooms and treadmills were used for exercise.

As the air cleared and it was safer to go outside they walked the Promenade area practicing bark work and other commands. These dogs, who mostly came from rescue sites and shelters, often dogs deemed “unadoptable” because of their energy and drive, maintained their focus and training in very distracted surroundings.

They came back to the SDF Training Facility and even with the damage that was done to the site, they continued their work, “not skipping a beat” Sanders said.

For additional information about the organization and to help them rebuild their sate of the art facility after the Thomas Fire, please go to their website.