As a big Westminster Kennel C lub dog show fan, I had watched the 2002 program in which search-and-rescue dogs from 9-11 were honored. I dearly wanted to bring attention to such a dog from New Mexico, and finally tracked down Lette Birn of Los Alamos, the training director for New Mexico Disaster Dogs. Guinness is her eleven-year-old male Black Labrador. As a team, they were called to the Pentagon. Guinness began his training at eight weeks of age and is certified in wilderness work, police work, and has searched for the FBI. Lette also has another Black Lab male, Spenser, named after the TV detective Spenser for Hire. A third dog, Mica, is a female Golden Retriever. All three were trained for search and rescue. Spenser has just passed his FEMA pre-test. He’s presently working on the fine points of communication and will go soon for the difficult final test. After that, he’ll be deemed mission ready. Mica did some of the training but was unreliable. In the training, the dog has to “make the find.” Mica had a 100% record of finding, but she was very unfocused and would get distracted by birds or critters. As Lette said, “Her social calendar was just too full to be a search-and-rescue dog.” Part of Lette’s training process with the dogs is to go to a landfill and have them walk over old cars and refrigerators. They walk very carefully. The main ability the dogs need is agility, not speed. If something begins to give under their front feet, they automatically won’t put weight on it. Lette uses a long plank over a barrel for training the dogs. When they get to the part of the plank where the balance shifts, they will wait until the board goes down and hits the ground before moving. Lette speaks to the dogs in German, which is really handy at rescue sites when there are a lot of trainers and dogs. The dogs can get confused by everyone calling out commands. It also keeps Lette very conscious and focused on her language with them. Guinness is the calmest dog I’ve ever seen. At the shoot, Spenser and Mica were running around busily. Guinness lay on the bed near Lette and never moved the entire time. He’s a big dog – so solid and calm. He’s been that way since he was a puppy, and he has a calming influence on those around him. Many rescue workers at the Pentagon came over and asked to take Guinness for a walk or just sit with him so they could savor his mental and emotional stability. “I didn’t see the workers at the Pentagon coming up to other dogs and asking to sit with them,” said Lette. “Guinness had unending requests.” I had heard that some of the dogs at the 9-11 scenes were getting depressed. Lette said, “That’s not totally true. What you have to understand is that some dogs are trained to find live people, and some, like Guinness, are trained to find both live people and the dead. It’s different training and commands. If a dog has been trained to find live people and all he’s finding are cadavers, he gets depressed. Not because the people are dead, but because he feels like a failure. He hasn’t succeeded at his task. The dog has an emotional reaction to failing at his task. If he’s trained to find cadavers and finds a dead person, he’s fine – he is content with his work and has been successful.” There was a lot of mention in the news about the dogs walking through toxic debris at the 9-11 sites because of the diesel fuel from the planes. All the workers wore masks because everything was covered with diesel fuel. It takes eight years before cancers develop. “We’re cautious. We never put a dog in harm’s way. We’re fully aware of the hazards when we go in to save people. But we’re also aware that these are working dogs and this is what they do. If there are toxic situations like the one at the Pentagon, the dog may eventually die of cancer, but it will probably not develop before the dog dies of old age.” Guinness made a lot of finds at the Pentagon and was highly commended for his thorough work. “After the Pentagon, I noticed that Guinness has changed. He used to have an intenseness that’s now gone. It’s like nothing would ever compare to that experience again. It was the highlight of his career – feeling the adrenaline, the workers, the energy of the site, the clear severity of what had happened. I’ve taken him on other finds and he’s not as interested. He’s gotten older and he’s retired now, even though his nose works perfectly. We have a responsibility to the victims and families of whatever situation we’re called to.” The University of Pennsylvania is doing psychological stress studies with her and Guinness to find out as much information as possible from this tragedy to better serve in the future. Every six months she sends in a saliva sample from her and Guinness for testing. Most people don’t think Guinness is affected by anything because he’s so calm. At airports, children will be drawn to him. They’ll pick up his ears, lift his eyelids, and put their fingers in his nostrils. He’s fine. When he looks up at Lette and says “Enough,” she’ll take him to a more secluded part of the airport. I was in awe of this dog. It was a profound experience to meet such a solid, noble animal. Guinness has an enormous soul and being around him was like being at the feet of a master. He knew his purpose in life and did it commendably.