At a Mississippi animal shelter, a frail Labrador retriever puppy kept delivering toys, sticks and rocks to employees. Canyon wanted them thrown. To Christy Bormann, a Texas search-and-rescue handler, that persistent retrieving behavior suggested something more consequential than play: a potential working partner.
Bormann had lost her Labrador retriever Cody in 2020. When she later saw Canyon’s photograph, his resemblance to Cody caught her attention. I just knew that he was going to be the next partner for me, Bormann said. She adopted Canyon in fall 2021 and named him for his habit of digging holes.
The resemblance may have prompted the introduction, but drive shaped the partnership. Over approximately two years, Bormann helped Canyon gain weight while converting his fixation on fetch into a disciplined search behavior. She began by walking him past a target odor. Detection earned a thrown ball. As he progressed, she concealed the training object beneath dirt, sand, concrete slabs and desks, requiring him to locate it before the game began.
That reward system preserved what Canyon already valued. It also gave Bormann a precise way to reinforce concentration. She described him as so focused on the target scent that he could ignore a room filled with favored treats. For this dog, the opportunity to retrieve was not a diversion from work; it was the currency that made sustained search possible. Canyon became certified to search for missing people in May 2023. His specialty is human-remains detection. When he identifies the relevant scent, he barks to alert Bormann, who can then notify first responders.
From certification to disaster deployments
Canyon has since assisted in dozens of operations. His assignments have included the 2023 Maui wildfires, Hurricane Helene in 2024 and the 2025 Texas floods. He has worked through wildfire ash, along steep, muddy flood banks and beneath tornado-damaged homes. After the Texas floods, which killed more than 100 people, Canyon spent about three months searching along the Guadalupe River near Camp Mystic. The ASPCA later named him its dog of the year, citing in part his work following that disaster.
Disaster-search certification assesses a team rather than the dog alone. Under FEMA’s urban search-and-rescue standards, canine-handler teams must pass national certification and recertify every three years. Handlers are evaluated on subjects including search tactics, mapping, markings, briefings and canine handling. Dogs are assessed for command response, agility, persistence and their ability to work around environmental distractions.
FEMA separates canine work into live-find and human-remains detection. Human-remains teams enter searches after live-find work for survivors has been conducted, then coordinate with law-enforcement agencies and coroner’s offices responsible for identification and processing. A dog’s alert guides the operational team; it does not replace the officials who investigate, recover and identify.
Canyon’s intense retrieving interest fits a broader pattern in candidate selection. The National Disaster Search Dog Foundation looks for dogs with pronounced drive, energy, agility, confidence and focus—qualities needed to negotiate unstable surfaces, darkness, noise and debris. Those traits still require professional development. Canyon’s progression depended on repeated odor work, changing concealment conditions and a handler who could control when and how the reward arrived.
Protecting the search dog
The physical demands do not end when a dog learns the scent task. Texas A&M veterinarian Dr. Deb Zoran identifies overheating, dehydration, leg injuries and damaged foot pads among recurring deployment risks. She also notes that dehydration and overheating can reduce scenting function, making health management part of operational readiness rather than an issue separate from performance.
Handlers watch for small changes in movement or behavior that may indicate injury, while veterinary teams support dogs before, during and after missions. Wildfire assignments add smoke and particulate exposure. The American Veterinary Medical Association advises limiting intense outdoor exercise when air quality is poor and consulting a veterinarian when an animal develops breathing difficulty, fatigue, weakness or other signs of smoke irritation.
Human-remains detection serves a difficult but defined public function. University of Minnesota professor emeritus Pauline Boss explained that families of missing people face especially severe strain: While they don’t know, the stress is exceedingly high. Confirmed information can allow customary grieving and mourning to begin, even when the assignment itself offers no celebratory outcome.
For Canyon, the reinforcement remains straightforward. Bormann carries a stuffed squeaky bunny and rewards him after missions with fetch—the same basic game he pursued with whatever shelter employees were willing to throw. His path from underweight stray to deployed search dog was not a change from playfulness to seriousness. It was the careful conversion of a persistent behavior into reliable professional work. What’s your dog’s job, official or self-appointed? Tell us in the comments.
By Tom Whitaker — Outdoor magazine editor who has reported on search-and-rescue, herding, field dogs, and working-dog handlers.
