Search-and-rescue dogs are caught in a double bind: they love to work but far too often get a bad rap.

High-drive dogs are often placed into lives that have little to offer them, so they are not really failures.

Tracy Darling helps people see the love and magic in these dogs, their intensity, curiosity, and drive.

Search-and-rescue (SAR) dogs are highly unique canines. For 30 years, the National Disaster Search Dog Foundation has looked for potential in a place many people overlook: the shelter system. They seek highly driven dogs: intense, persistent, curious animals often described as too energetic, too busy, or too much. Yet the traits that prevented success in one placement can make a dog extraordinary in the right one.

Disaster search is elite work, and not every dog they recruit will be suited to it. When a dog does not make that narrow grade, their responsibility shifts to finding a life where that dog can thrive. That experience motivates them to help more people see the magic in these dogs: the possibility hidden inside all that intensity, curiosity, and drive.

Here's what Tracy Darling, Senior Director of Canine Operations at the National Disaster Search Dog Foundation, says about retired life for high-drive dogs.

Marc Bekoff: How did you get interested in this work, and what did you learn about shelter dogs that you did not expect?

Tracy Darling: I was first drawn to this work by images from the aftermath of September 11: dogs and handlers moving through rubble, accomplishing something no machine could. The work was heroic, but actually living with a high-drive dog changed my understanding of the story. I thought we were teaching dogs to do remarkable things. Instead, they were teaching us to live differently. They required clearer communication and greater........

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