Ground Zero’s mission is to strengthen emergency response to natural and man-made disasters at the local, state and national levels. In order to fulfill our mission, we have established three foundational goals:

• Provide a state-of-the-art facility that effectively replicates disaster conditions
• Provide exceptional, highly trained search-and-rescue canines at no charge to task forces
• Provide advanced education, training, and support for our heroic First Responders

The resources and increased level of readiness provided by Ground Zero dramatically affect the state of preparedness, mitigation, survival and recovery efforts for citizens of Oklahoma and across the nation. 

Ground Zero trained and placed 29 search-and-rescue canines in its first three years of operation, free of charge to task force teams. This number represents more canines trained and placed than any other search and rescue canine training facility in the country. Further differentiating itself, Ground Zero trains search-and-rescue canines alongside their human partners, providing approximately 2,000 hours of training to the canines before matching them with a first responder.

As a 501(c) 3 non-profit organization, Ground Zero relies on the support of corporate donors, foundations and generous individuals to provide specialized training for first responders and their canine partners. Small or large, every gift makes a difference toward preparedness and saving lives. Learn more about ways to give →

Oklahoma is ranked in the top 3 states for disasters. In 2016, there were only nine dogs certified in Oklahoma to respond to disaster events and most were near retirement age. Oklahoma Task Force 1, comprised of emergency responders from Oklahoma City and Tulsa had been on the waitlist for over three years to receive new dogs. This put task forces in both cities in a vulnerable position in terms of disaster preparedness. Ground Zero now ensures Oklahoma Task Force 1 teams have the minimum number of dogs required to deploy.  While Oklahoma is a top priority, Ground Zero also provides highly specialized dogs to other task forces across the country, including Tribal Nations, Kansas, Missouri, Arizona, Colorado and California, with other states currently on a list for a Ground Zero canine including Virginia and Massachusetts.

Ground Zero works closely with the Chickasaw and Caddo Nations through provision of recovery canines.  Other collaborations include Oklahoma State University, the University of Tennessee and Southern Illinois University.  Ground Zero is committed to research, working with educational institutions to enhance canine health and performance. Intern programs for students, public and private entities are currently under development. 

Ground Zero primarily uses Labrador Retrievers and Belgium Malinois but, will use any dog that has the drive and nerve strength to perform the job.

• Canines in training learn to search, locate and alert when human scent is detected. This allows a first responder to know, for example, when someone is trapped, below a pile of rubble. 
• The canine is also trained to ignore all other smells, including food that may have fallen out of the trash or overturned refrigerators, live or dead animals and most importantly they must learn to distinguish between the scent of first responder and the victim who might be buried below the rubble. This specialized training is a proven method, providing certainty that, when a trained canine barks to alert the first responder,  there is in fact a person in need of rescuing. There is no technology to date that can compare in time to a dog’s nose or its speed to locate people that may be trapped in a collapsed building.
• Canines must also be trained to navigate unstable footing, that may include collapsed concrete buildings or a wooden structure.  These types of structures may have glass and nails everywhere. Exposing the dogs to a variety of structures during training prepares them for real world disaster situations. 
• Training the dogs to work off leash independently of their handler is important because the canine can search the scene of a disaster, more safely and  effectively than a human first responder.

As the dogs near the end of their training, future handlers are involved in an intensive two-week training course. Ground Zero trainers then partner each dog with a handler, ensuring a perfect match. Ground Zero canines play an active role in choosing his or her handler. The handlers continue to train with their canine partners, daily while the dog lives and works with the handler, working toward state and federal certification. 

Certification is required to deploy to a disaster as part of a task force within both the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and State Urban Search and Rescue Alliance (SUSAR) systems. which test a search team takes depends upon the task force of which they are a member.

The average Ground Zero cost is  $50,000 to create a Certified Search Team. This includes recruiting canine candidates, caring for and training new dogs, partnering them with a handler, and providing the first year of advanced training toward Certification.

As the first to arrive on the scene of a disaster, first responders already follow a  rigorous training regimen and can more easily, incorporate a search dog into their career and lifestyle. Civilians who are successful handlers must be able to match this training regimen and have a career in which they are able to have the dog with them at all times.

• Highly skilled search dogs trained by one of the nation’s top canine instructors
• A proven program of training for the canine-first responder team leading to DHS/FEMA Advanced Certification
• Ongoing support to the team throughout the working life of the dog.

With Ground Zero’s unique program pairing a professionally trained dog with a first responder, new search teams are certifying faster than ever. The goal is for each team to achieve certification within eighteen months of being partnered, although some could excel sooner.