On Sunday Sept. 11, 2016, 15 years after 9/11, Finlay and I traveled South to Miami to train with Miami Task Force 1. Finlay is a search and rescue dog. Miami TF1 is a FEMA team – a federal team that deploys to events like 9/11. Finlay and I are on Central Florida TF4, a State Urban Search and Rescue team. We are first responders who deploy regionally.
We all agreed that training on 9/11, training to respond to disasters, was the perfect way to honor the anniversary of that horrific event.
FINLAY is 10 years old. He’s been training and working as a search and rescue dog since he was 12 weeks old. He was certified in wilderness SAR through the National Association for Search and Rescue (NASAR) and the National Search Dog Association (NSDA). He was certified for Urban Search and Rescue (disaster search) through State Urban Search And Rescue (SUSAR).
A few months ago Finlay started showing signs of weakening hips. We started hydro-therapy, and it seemed to do wonders. I had hopes of buying another year or two of working life for Finlay and his hips. The amount of time it usually takes to train a new dog up to operational level. That training day in Miami proved differently.
Fin had a hard time negotiating the the huge concrete rubble at the Miami pile. He showed a lack of confidence on the pile, which is dangerous. It was time for him to retire.
I decided to wait a few days before telling my task force that Finlay was retiring. I wanted to let it soak in. On Thursday, I decided it was time. I called our Canine Coordinator, he didn’t pick up the phone. I’d try again Friday.
At 5:50 am on Friday I received a text asking me to deploy to a search for a gentleman with Alzheimer’s who went missing the night before. One more search for Finlay, that would be on flat ground, easy terrain for his hips. We deployed, we searched, Finlay had difficulty jumping over a downed tree. Confirmation that retirement was the right decision.
Finlay completed his search successfully. The man was not in our search area, but Finlay did his job of clearing the area. It turns out the man had been picked up by a good samaritan during the night and delivered to a hospital. He was ok.
Lord Finlay of Concharty (Dam: Cline’s Concharty Ad Lib / Sire: Sir Loin of Red Bank Beef) responded to two disasters and more than two handfuls of missing person cases over his career with Dawson County, GA K9 Strike Team, GA TF9 and FL TF4. He helped search for a woman and her infant after a tornado plowed through Ringold, GA and cleared the Historical Daughters of the American Revolution building that collapsed under the weight of ice in Atlanta, GA.
He helped search for missing children, campers, hunters, and found an elderly man with dementia who had wandered to the top of a mountain, lost his footing and slid 
down. When Finlay found him sitting in the wet leaves with his legs spread in a ‘V’, he dug a hole between his legs and lied there looking at him, making sure he didn’t go anywhere. I asked the man if he liked dogs. He replied, “He sure likes to dig.”
Finlay will continue to do demos and be an ambassador for SAR dogs, and help teach new handlers how it’s done. He might try his hand at a herding instinct test, and keeps bugging me about getting a pool because retrieving a Wubba in the hydro-therapy pool is his new favorite thing. But his most important job will continue to be keeping everything in order at home.