Ground Zero Search Dog Now Uses Special Talents To Help Special Kids

Meet Bretagne, a search dog with a very special gift. In the dark, depressed days after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, those who rescued survivors and those who watched the horrific search at the World Trade Center often felt unspeakably devastated at the loss of so many lives. But Bretagne, who was then only 2-years-old, did more than search at Ground Zero. This intuitive search dog seemed to know when people were in emotional pain, her owner told Today on September 11.

The beautiful golden retriever search dog faithfully did the grim work of finding what she could. But she seemed to feel that her mission of helping included offering her love and healing powers to the living. This included, at one point, a firefighter seated on the ground, recalled her owner Denise Corliss of Cypress, Texas, who thought the firefighter looked annoyed.

“I was surprised that she wasn’t listening to me, but she really wasn’t — it was like she was flipping me the paw,” Corliss said of her highly trained search dog. “She went right to that firefighter and laid down next to him and put her head on his lap.”

A veterinarian praised the search dogs at that scene for all that they contributed. While their physical attributes (keen eyes, trained noses, and determined paws) were essential, their unconditional love and furry, soothing presence meant just as much to the humans tasked with doing the difficult work.

Given the job of caring for 9/11 search dogs at Ground Zero, Dr. Cindy Otto praised what those dogs contributed.

“You’d see firefighters sitting there, unanimated, stone-faced, no emotion, and then they’d see a dog and break out into a smile,” Otto recalled. “Those (search) dogs brought the power of hope. They removed the gloom for just an instant — and that was huge because it was a pretty dismal place to be.”

Although Bretagne continued to use her search dog skills in rescues throughout the nation, the golden retriever retired from that type of work when she turned 9. But now, at what is the equivalent of 93 human years, the former search dog has no intention of slowing down, reported Firehouse News on September 11.

Bretagne now helps children learn to read at a local elementary school. Just as determined as when she was a search dog at Ground Zero, the beautiful golden retriever proudly wears her service vest and helps children with special needs learn to read out loud.

“She still has this attitude of putting her paw up and saying, ‘Put me in, coach!'” Corliss said. “She absolutely loves it.”

“I’ve seen Bretagne almost select a child,” praised Shelley Swedlaw, a special education director who works with the retired search dog. “She’s just really good about knowing who needs that kind, canine attention.”

To honor her search dog work, Bretagne is a finalist for the American Humane Association’s Hero Dog Awards. But it’s the petting most of all that matters to dogs, as The Inquisitr reported. And that new research, which revealed that dogs love to be caressed even more than verbal praise, may reveal why search dogs such as this gentle golden retriever love to curl up next to their humans.

Whether it’s a highly trained search dog or a plump mutt trying to look endearing behind the bars at an animal shelter adoption center, dogs just want to feel our love. As the searchers on those grim days after 9/11 learned, dogs are eager to give all that they can without expecting any reward other than love.

[Photo by Angela Weiss/Getty Images for SAG Foundation]