When “Zodiac,” a 110-pound Akita, hears “Go say hi,” he ambles into the room and gently perches on the person seated on the floor. Or he might lean against them. “Zodiac figures out what they need and what position works best,” says Shirley Graziano, Zodiac’s handler. As a canine crisis team, Graziano and Zodiac have responded to 14 major shootings in four years and know how to provide strength, comfort, and emotional support to someone who has experienced a tragedy.
Graziano and her 5-year-old Akita are one of 140 certified canine crisis teams with New Jersey-based Crisis Response Canines (CRC). The nonprofit’s selfless dedication to providing psychological first aid to survivors and relatives of victims has had a profound impact on communities, earning it the 2025 AKC Humane Fund Service Award for Canine Excellence (ACE) in the “Teams” category. Team visits not only give survivors a safe respite following a trauma but also raise awareness about how trained crisis dogs support mental health in the aftermath of human-caused disasters such as acts of terrorism or natural disasters, like hurricanes, fires, floods, epidemics, and tornadoes.
Canine Response Canines co-founders Major John Hunt and Andrea Hering will be recognized at the 2025 AKC National Championship presented by Royal Canin in Orlando, Florida, in December. This recognition is a testament to the canine teams’ hard work and dedication in providing support in catastrophic situations.
Each year, the AKC Humane Fund awards dogs who do extraordinary things in the service of humankind in six categories: Service Dog, Search and Rescue Dog in one of two sub-categories: disaster response and human detection, Uniformed Service K-9, Exemplary Companion, and Therapy Dog. This year, Teams joined the ACE roster. Dogs in the Teams grouping are certified to assist in search and rescue (human detection and disaster response) therapy, and/or K-9 police work.
What Are Crisis Response Dog Teams?
Ready to deploy teams locally and nationwide, CRC has cultivated connections with hospitals, schools, and emergency response agencies across the country. “These organizations reach out to us, or we contact them, and we coordinate efforts before sending available canine response teams to help,” says Major Hunt. “Once we have an agenda and know how many teams to send, we establish a schedule and plan travel arrangements.”
To join CRC, the organization has a strict canine acceptance policy. “We only accept dogs who are purpose-bred and possess therapy dog certification with a national therapy-dog organization,” Hunt says. “We’re committed to this because we’re looking for stable temperaments.”
Whether spending time in a hospital, school, nursing home, or a fire or flood, CRC teams are involved in crises daily and must be able to handle stress in any environment. “As a result, our dogs must meet certain personality criteria,” Hering says. “Trained and fully socialized, our dogs must be comfortable, outgoing, and calm around strangers, take crowds and deafening noises like crying or screaming in stride, and not react negatively to children or adults in distress.”
Deployed dogs are required to have CRC Crisis Working Dog and Law Enforcement Defensive Systems Crisis Working Dog certifications. They also require AKC Canine Good Citizen, AKC Canine Good Citizen Advanced (AKC Community Canine), and AKC Urban Canine Good Citizen titles. “Many of our dogs also compete in AKC sports such as Rally, obedience, tracking, and Nose Work, and some in conformation,” Hering says.
CRC teams are certified by the Alliance of Therapy Dogs (ATD), US Police K-9 Association, LEDS, and the United States Police Canine Association (USPCA). They also possess Working Dog Certification. Handlers complete CRC psychological and mental first-aid requirements. “These certifications set CRC teams apart from others,” Hunt says.
Crisis Response Canines, Therapy Dogs, and Emotional Support Animals
Although nothing is more comforting after a tragedy than the reassuring soft gaze and nonjudgmental touch of a dog, crisis response canines offer a higher level of healing than some therapy dogs.
Crisis response canines receive training to ignore crowds and unfamiliar noises, so they can help people remain calm in a stressful setting. “In addition to providing comfort, the dogs help people decompress from what they’ve experienced,” Hunt says. CRC handlers receive certification in specialized training, during which they visit scenes with another handler and dog team.
When a disaster strikes, well-meaning therapy dogs and emotional support animals often arrive at the scene to offer their assistance. Still, not all therapy dogs can react calmly in a highly charged scene. Most therapy dog handlers haven’t received crisis management training.
Emotional support animals comfort their owners, though they’re not considered therapy dogs, as they aren’t trained to provide therapy or help in a crisis.
The Importance of Wellness Visits
As a military police officer, Danique Masingill worked with first responders after the September 11 attacks. Now retired, she feels passionately about community health. With “Ra,” her 7-year-old Belgian Malinois PTSD dog, Masingill became CRC-certified.
Masingill’s opinion of the importance of community health and her relationship with Ra influenced her decision to join CRC. “I know what he does for me, and how much a dog can do for someone else who suffers,” Masingill says.
“Ra allows me to function without medication and notices certain mannerisms I do,” Masingill says. “When he notices me acting differently, he alerts me if I have night terrors and interrupts them by waking me.”
While making routine wellness visits to her local sheriff’s offices, fire stations, and school counselors, Masingill builds relationships. “When people already know Ra and me, it helps them feel more at ease if there’s a crisis,” Masingill says. “Many first responders feel they need to stay strong and not show any emotion after a crisis, but our CRC training taught Ra and me what to say or not say.”
After several children died at a local school, the team participated in an Empty Chair Rotation. Masingill and Ra followed the group the student belonged to, and Ra sat in the missing student’s chair. “Everyone feels the loss of someone no longer with them, and Ra’s presence provides comfort and caring,” Masingill says.
At another time, Ra and Masingill were part of a debriefing team following a traffic accident resulting in the death of a small child.
“Here’s where Ra shines,” Masingill says. Belgian Malinois usually work with law enforcement units and first responders, who naturally relax when they spot this breed. When Masingill spoke with a first responder, the officer began talking about his own grandchild and how seeing this deceased child reminded him of his own grandchild.
“Ra picked up on the officer’s emotions and dived sideways into the man’s thigh and leaned into him,” Masingill says. The firefighter buried his face in the dog’s thick coat and massaged its neck. “They had a moment, and the dog knew the officer needed him to tell us his story without feeling embarrassed,” Masingill recalls.
When Masingill and Ra made a wellness visit to a school for the first time, the team didn’t anticipate how loud and nonverbal the children were. Aside from the children’s happy outbursts, the dog showed extreme tolerance when the kids pulled the hair on his neck and tail, but Masingill focused on Ra’s needs. “CRC teaches we are our dog’s advocate, so with another counselor in the room relating to the children, I watched Ra’s reaction,” she says. “For me, belonging to CRC has been a blessing because I can see the positive impact Ra and I are making.