Saber to the Rescue

Fleta and Max Kirk talked about getting a dog for a long time. They asked breeders about all sorts of different dogs.

“We know we’re ready to add a Collie to our family,” Fleta said. “Mrs. York, the breeder we visited months ago, called and said she has a litter of seven Collie puppies – 6 girl puppies and one boy puppy.

“Let’s go see them, Max!”

The Kirks drove to Mrs. York’s kennel. The puppies were playing on the patio.

When Mrs. York opened the door for the puppies to come in, the male puppy raced straight to Fleta. He kissed her face with his wet black nose. He jumped up and licked her on the nose. Then he grabbed her shoelaces with his teeth and untied her shoes.

“I like his spunk,” Fleta said. “This is the puppy for us!”

At home, Saber was into everything.

“This boy needs a job,” Fleta said.

Max, who worked as a fire chief, knew the city needed search and rescue dogs to find missing children and people who may get trapped or lost after a flood, earthquake, tornado, or hurricane. Max told Fleta, “If you can train the dog, I can train the people to work with the dog.”

Fleta, an experienced dog trainer, started training Saber. Saber had one collar for work, and another collar for play. Even though training was work, Fleta always made it fun for Saber.

To teach Saber how to find people, Fleta played hide-and-seek with him.

Fleta and Max took him to the park. Max held Saber while Fleta ran away clapping and calling to Saber. Fleta ducked behind a tree and hid.

Max let Saber go. Saber ran straight to Fleta’s hiding spot. Fleta threw her arms around him and squealed, “Good boy! You’re as smart as a rocket scientist!”

They played this game over and over, then started having different people hide. Every time Saber found someone, Fleta hugged, petted, and praised him.

Saber liked that.

After nine months of training, Saber was ready to start working as a search and rescue dog. He was lowered from a helicopter to search for people among huge piles of debris left by flooded rivers. He traversed wilderness areas and balanced on the rubble left from devastating tornadoes in search of lost people.

Just about every week the Kirks receive a call asking for Saber’s help.

One day the local police called wanting Saber to help them find a missing 15-year-old girl. All the police knew was that the girl had gone through a hole in the fence of her backyard.

Fleta put Saber’s work collar on and drove him to the girl’s backyard. The police had found a scrap of fabric from the girl’s clothing about the size of a dime on the fence. Fleta held out the tiny scrap of fabric, and gave the command, “Smell that.”

Saber sniffed the fabric then sniffed all around the edge of the fence. Then Fleta gave the command, “Find that.”

Upon hearing the command, Saber started running down the street. Fleta and 12 police officers followed close behind. Saber ran through alleyways and past a church then dodged into a wooded area. He ran along the edges of a path and dove into some bushes.

The girl was there!

Fleta petted and praised Saber for finding the girl and gave Saber a piece of beef jerky – one of his favorite treats.

It was a hot summer day, and the girl was suffering from heatstroke. An ambulance took the girl to the hospital. She got better and was soon re-united with her family.

On the way home, Saber got another reward for a job well done – a heaping scoop of vanilla ice cream.

Once home, Saber walked into the bathroom, spread out on the tile floor directly underneath the air-conditioner vent and went to sleep.