Inside the World of Working Dogs
From the rubble of 9/11 to life-saving medical research, Dr. Cindy Otto has dedicated her career to proving just how extraordinary working dogs can be
I love dogs. This should be clear by the fact that in a 10-episode season, two are about dogs and the people who work with them.
The latest episode, about Dr. Cindy Otto, is particularly fun, because her job is training dogs to do their jobs. At the Penn Vet Working Dog Center, dogs learn how to work in search and rescue, bomb and drug detection, and bio-detection—meaning that some of these magnificent critters are out here identifying cancer so scientists can learn what it’s made of. This is life-changing, life-saving work, and it takes a human–animal bond.
Our story begins on September 11, 2001, when Dr. Otto was part of the Pennsylvania Task Force 1, a search and rescue team called down to Ground Zero. She was in charge of medical care for the dogs that braved the wreckage to find survivors so rescuers could bring out alive. It was because of a dog, a German Shepherd named Trakr, that the last survivor was found 27 hours after the second tower collapsed. (Trakr was later cloned, btw.)
The work done by dogs on 9/11 inspired Dr. Otto to create a center, a kind of lab, where working dogs could be trained and studied.
OK, now go listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your favorite shows.
Thanks for being here!
Emily
Keep learning
A list of things mentioned in the episode you would otherwise have to go Googling for.
Info about the Penn Vet Working Dog Center
A video tour of the WDC (you can also sign up to take an actual tour of the space)
Profiles of the current working dogs (I mean, c’mon!!!!)
Info about the WDC’s work on detecting hemangiosarcoma + how you can support it
Two papers published about using dogs to detect Covid (here and here)
And lastly, here’s a picture of my beautiful girl, Tallulah
I just sent this episode to my kids. Our family loves dogs too. In fact on Saturday we are adopting a new dog (our sweet dog Lynn died in June, so I was crying along with you when you talked about your dog’s death). This podcast is inspiring me to figure out a special “job” for our new family member!