A Mississippi animal shelter took in a skinny stray puppy with one habit worth noticing. He grabbed anything he could find, toys, sticks, rocks, and dropped it at the feet of the staff, waiting for someone to throw it. That obsession with fetch turned out to be a job interview.
Christy Bormann, a search-and-rescue dog handler in Texas, saw a photo of the little Labrador mix and knew. She named him Canyon, because he loved digging holes, and spent two years building him from a frail stray into a working dog. The fetch drive became scent work, and in 2023 Canyon was certified to search for missing people.
Since then he has worked dozens of operations, including the 2025 Texas floods that killed more than 100 people near Camp Mystic, Hurricane Helene in 2024, and the Maui wildfires in 2023. Canyon is trained to find people who have died, which sounds grim until you hear how families describe it. As long as a loved one is missing, grief gets stuck. Once there is an answer, they can finally mourn.
On Thursday the ASPCA named Canyon its dog of the year. His handler, who runs canine training for Texas A&M Task Force 1, still carries a squeaky bunny for him to chase after every mission.
What this means for your dog: The thing that drives you a little crazy about your dog, the ball obsession, the nose that never switches off, the stubborn energy, may be the most valuable part of them. High-drive dogs do best when you give the drive a purpose. Hide treats around the house, play nose games, teach a real retrieve. And if you are choosing a dog, remember what the ASPCA said about Canyon. Judge animals by their potential, not their past.
Read the full story at The Washington Post. Working dogs turn up in small places too, like the rookie K9 who found three lost kids on his first day.