“A moving page-turner of a memoir from an accomplished trainer who shifts from the work of search and rescue to that of psychiatric service dogs.”—The Boston Globe After a grisly search-and-rescue operation led to troubling consequences for author Susannah Charleson, she found that her relationship with Puzzle, her search dog, made a surprising contribution to her own healing. Inspired by that experience, Charleson learned to identify abandoned dogs with service potential, plucking them from shelters and training them to work with disabled human partners, to whom the dogs bring assistance, comfort, and hope. Similar to her New York Times bestselling first book, Scent of the Missing, Charleson’s The Possibility Dogs goes beyond the science that explains working canines to tell the stories of the dogs themselves. Like Merlin, a black Lab puppy who had been thrown away in a garbage bag and now stabilizes his partner’s panic attacks. And service dog Jake Piper, a formerly starving pit bull mix who went from abandoned to irreplaceable. This heartwarming combination of memoir and research is sure to both inform and inspire. “For everyone who is interested in the human animal bond, this book is essential reading. Learn how service dogs can provide emotional support for people who are in great need.”—Temple Grandin, author of Animals Make us Human and Animals in Translation “You don’t have to be an animal lover to be moved by this beautifully written and impassioned account of the author’s work rescuing dogs from shelters and training them to be service animals . . . This is the rare book that can change minds about the reality of animals’ emotional lives.”—Publishers Weekly (starred review)

My Search is the result of over 10 years of research, testing and experimenting to find answers for all the people about allergies and sickness, and how and why they were getting them. The author feels that her work will serve and help people around the world. This book is a personal journey of an author who fundamentally cares about the welfare and health of her fellow man, and wanted to use her own personal challenges and transform them into opportunity to learn and better the world around her.

Lola was a buckshot-riddled stray, lost on a Memphis highway. Cody was rejected from seven different homes. Ace had been sprayed with mace and left for dead on a train track. They were deemed unadoptable. Untrainable. Unsalvageable. These would become the same dogs America relied on when its worst disasters hit. In 1995, Wilma Melville volunteered as a canine search-and-rescue (SAR) handler with her Black Labrador Murphy in the aftermath of the Oklahoma City bombing. At the time, there were only fifteen FEMA certified SAR dogs in the United States. Believing in the value of these remarkable animals to help save lives, Wilma knew many more were needed in the event of future major disasters. She made a vow to help 168 dogs receive search-and-rescue training in her lifetime—one for every Oklahoma City victim. Wilma singlehandedly established the National Disaster Search Dog Foundation (SDF) to meet this challenge. The first canine candidates—Ana, Dusty, and Harley—were a trio of golden retrievers with behavioral problems so severe the dogs were considered irredeemable and unadoptable. But with patience, discipline, and love applied during training, they proved to have the ability, agility, and stamina to graduate as SARs. Paired with a trio of firefighters, they were among the first responders searching the ruins of the World Trade Center following 9/11—setting the standard for the more than 168 of the SDF’s search-and-rescue dogs that followed. Beautiful and heart-wrenching, Hero Dogs is the story of one woman’s dream brought to fruition by dedicated volunteers and firefighters—and the bonds they forged with the incredible rescued-turned-rescuer dogs to create one of America’s most vital resources in disaster response.

"At some point in our lives, we have all been lost in a wilderness of some kind, whether literal or metaphorical, without any direction on how to find our way back home... [P]eople who have been lost, in the wilderness, in the workplace, or in life, can teach us how to go beyond survival and thrive, regardless of the nature of our personal wildernesses.: -- Publisher.

Quick response to natural and man-made disasters can mean the difference between life and death for trapped victims. This is a step-by-step guide to training dogs to the FEMA level for this important work.

The Dog-Driven Search is a handler's guide to working with a dog in the wonderful sport of nose work. Authors Zinn and Sternberg provide detailed explanations of human body language and the nonverbal conversations we are always having with our dogs. This book teaches the human half of the team how to fully support and trust the canine half of the team, so together they can experience the wonder of engaging in the dog's olfactory world.