Good Dog of the Week Award

The Good Dog Blog will be awarding a weekly “Good Dog Award” for dogs doing good things and those doing good things for dogs.

This week’s Good Dog Award honors the dogs and handlers who served our country in the wake of the 9/11 tragedies.

In 2011, on the tenth anniversary of 9/11, filmmaker Kenn Bell created this video during a ceremony at Liberty State Park in New Jersey to pay tribute to the dog/handler teams that worked countless hours of search and rescue at ground zero and also therapy dog teams that provided comfort to those in shock, grief and despair.

We may never know the true impacts that these working dogs had in the events following 9/11, but the true legacy of these canine heroes, was the awareness that was brought after 9/11 to organizations such as the National Disaster Search Dog Foundation. The NDSDF is a non-profit that pairs rescued dogs with search and rescue first responders. Donations can be made to NDSDF to help transition and train shelter dogs into professional search and rescue team members.

This week, we honor the memory of all the 9/11 working dogs for their service and sacrifice and salute all the current search and rescue and therapy dog teams that continue to serve our country in times of need.