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Jennifer-Leigh Oprihory: The FBI’s crisis response canines and their expert handlers are specially trained to support victims of violent crimes and mass violence incidents.

These critical first-responders support victims and cultivate trust among impacted communities in the immediate aftermath of tragedy. Crisis response canines also lend a sense of calm to child and adult victims in sensitive situations like forensic interviews and courtroom testimony, empowering these survivors to share their experiences with investigators and juries, alike—ultimately helping the Justice Department to secure convictions in violent crime and counterterrorism cases.

On this episode of our podcast, we’ll learn how the FBI got its first crisis response canines and how their real-world impact led the Bureau to expand the program to the field. We’ll also learn how these canines are chosen and trained, how they’re paired with their FBI handlers, and what their collective calling demands.

I’m Jennifer-Leigh Oprihory, and this is Inside the FBI.

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Oprihory: The FBI’s Crisis Response Canine Program was born out of a moment of inspiration. In 2014, the Victim Services Division’s then-assistant director witnessed one of our international law enforcement partners using working dogs in a victim-support capacity. That lightbulb moment made her wonder if the Bureau could replicate that approach in the United States.

Melody: And she came back and had me research what was going on here in the States in regards to animal assistance and victims. And, at that time, it really wasn't a whole lot going on, at least at the federal level.

Oprihory: That’s Melody, an FBI management and program analyst and crisis response canine handler.

Melody: Fast forward to 2015. We partnered with Assistance Dogs of the West out of Santa Fe, New Mexico, and we obtained Gio and Wally.

Early on, the mission of the program really was to leverage the canine-human bond to mitigate stress and anxiety of victims following mass violence incidents. Soon after that, we branched out and we started providing support to critical incidents and violent crime. So, that means Gio and Wally would assist across all threat programs in the Bureau. And that could look like court support, forensic interviews, briefings, hostage reunifications, and so on.

Oprihory: Melody was paired with Gio—a black English Labrador. Her colleague, Staci—an FBI victim services coordinator—was paired with Wally—a yellow English Lab.

The mass shooting in San Bernardino, California, on December 2, 2015, marked the crisis response canines’ first deployment to a mass violence incident. Over almost 10 years, they’d go on to deploy to the scenes of other mass shootings, including:

• the Pulse nightclub shooting in Orlando, Florida, in June 2016
• the October 2017 music festival shooting in Las Vegas; and
• the May 2022 school shooting in Uvalde, Texas

But, as Staci explains, Wally and Gio’s impact has also made itself apparent in less publicized moments.

Staci: When we look at different scenarios, whether it's a child that was coming in for forensic interview who was scared or even walking into the building, versus a court hearing where we've worked with a victim who's been very traumatically abused over a period of time, you hand them the leash. You can see how they’re really standing up straight. You could actually see how they’re physically being stronger. And so, whether it's victim impact statements where victims who might speak in a whisper are empowered and can use their voice, and it's stronger because they have the dog next to them. Those are some of the powerful moments.

You know, one of the things I can say I'm most proud of is that Gio is the very first federal facility dog to actually be in a courtroom during victim testimony. He really set the mark very, very high when he did that with a child victim several years ago. And then, Wally followed him as [the] second facility dog in a federal courtroom. So, we're really proud that our dogs have set the bar for folks moving forward.

Oprihory: According to Staci, these moments of empowering victims to share their stories are vital to securing justice for people impacted by crime.

Staci: Victims are volunteers. They don't have to speak with us. In a lot of cases, without victims, you don't have a case. And so, if we can implement tools to assist victims to be able to want to speak with us—to make it easier for them to speak to us—it's a win-win, because if victims speak with us, it gives us more information to help with our investigations and hopefully holding people accountable for their victimization, which keeps our streets safer and really helps society overall.

Melody: Hopefully, we positively impact the victims, as well as the investigative and the prosecutorial outcomes. So, it really kind of all ties-in together.

Oprihory: The canines’ successful tenure recently inspired the Victim Services Division to expand the program’s footprint to the field. Wally and Gio work out of FBI Headquarters in Washington, D.C., and deploy on an as-needed basis. Now, the Bureau’s newest crisis response canine recruits—Taz and Peg—will be based out of the FBI’s field offices in Dallas and Atlanta to help them deploy to areas of future need more easily.

Staci: Expanding it outward to the field, it'll help us reach more victims who are often vulnerable and don't exactly want to engage with the Bureau. We can make victims less afraid and really build rapport with them.

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Oprihory: Handlers say it's hard to articulate crisis response canines' impact.

Melissa: It's often hard to explain or express what they actually bring to the table. You have to experience it. You have to see it in order for people to fully understand the magnitude of how these dogs help victims in very difficult times.

Oprihory: That was Melissa, a newly minted handler who works with Peg out of FBI Dallas.

She first witnessed the power of dogs as a military social worker, when she saw the impact of canines on combat soldiers’ emotions. And using dogs like the ones Melissa worked with in the military and the Bureau’s crisis response canines is rooted in science.

As Assistance Dogs of the West Vice President and Program Director Jill Felice explains...

Felice: ...dogs help us release oxytocin. Oxytocin is your calming hormone.

Oprihory: As the chemical is released in someone’s body, it helps them regain their ability to speak and share their story. It also helps them cope with their experiences.

Felice: What they're finding now with the release of oxytocin, the faster you can get oxytocin into your brain when a traumatic event has happened, the less it stays in long-term memory and long-term trauma. And, as you know, that's one of the hardest things about crises.

Felice: People don't realize that looking at a dog, seeing a dog, petting a dog can help all of that happen. And so, the dog, in some cases, looks like it's doing very little.

I've watched in forensic interviews. You know, you may not be getting a nice pet for 30 minutes; you might be getting a very anxiety pet. But that dog is helping that person stay there and tell their story and get to justice.

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Oprihory: The healing power of crisis-response canines is rooted in their presence. But the high-pressure environments in which they work, the array of victims they serve, the operational tempo of deployments, and the variety of settings in which they need to be able to support victims requires certain skillsets and training—of both the canines and their handlers.

Unlike police K-9s, who cultivate a strong bond with individual handlers, crisis-response canines must be able to bond with entire groups of people at any moment, Felice said.

Felice: You need calm behavior. You need calm body movement. You need a dog who truly wants to be with people and is truly interested in what is going on, and you need a dog who can handle the ups and downs of a fast-spinning environment.

That dog is able to be in balance. It can still learn. It can still eat. It can still go to the bathroom. It can do all of those normal things and not be affected by that quick-spinning environment—and, then, be able to really focus on that person that needs their help at that moment at a Family Assistance Center or wherever they may be.

Oprihory: This need is specific enough that Assistance Dogs of the West began breeding a special type of Labrador to meet it. The organization has a puppy enrichment center dedicated to this purpose. There, canines are bred from parents with ideal health, body structure, and temperament.

Aimee Brown: People often ask, “When do you start training the dogs? Well, those first experiences are learning, and so training is learning. Those two things go hand in hand.

Oprihory: That’s Aimee Brown, ADW’s lead instructor and trainer.

Brown: So, of course, they cannot see, they cannot hear until about 14 days old, but they can smell. They're moving around. They feel vibrations. They have taste. And so, they're being exposed to a wide variety of things.

Oprihory: Trainers even start to change the flooring in the dogs’ space a few days after the puppies are born...

Aimee Brown: ...so that the world is not flat. They have to go over things and around things. They're already starting to be exposed to surfaces and different smells.

Oprihory: As part of this exposure training, trainers may bring in items with the scents of horses, dogs, cats, and other animals—and humans, too—so the puppies can get familiarized with a range of smells.

Brown: And so, they're learning all about that through their senses at a very young age.

Oprihory: Subsequently, they get exposed to a plethora of people. They also learn impulse control and engage in enrichment activities.

These incremental exposures to different kinds of settings and stimuli help prepare them to confidently navigate real-world, dynamic cities—full of strange vehicles and unfamiliar walking surfaces—when they’re a little older.

As the dogs grow, personnel at Assistance Dogs of the West begin to assess their suitability for service based on a variety of factors.

Oprihory: Among other things, they need to be able to work for unfamiliar people, a trait ADW calls “beta build.” This essentially means that a dog will take direction from anyone who gives the right cues versus playing favorites with one person or handler out of loyalty. This quality is especially important for when dogs support child victims in courtroom or interview settings.

Felice: Dogs give that ability to make you feel successful and make you feel important. And in that process, it really gives kids the power and that gives them the voice that they need.

Oprihory: And, at the end of the day, would-be crisis-response canines have to show a talent for the work. Since ADW trains both medical support dogs and facility dogs—another term for crisis-response canines—they observe what tasks puppies have a natural aptitude and appreciation for and let that guide their eventual careers.

Once a dog has shown suitability for crisis-response canine work, ADW works on pairing them with an organization and handler. Everything from the kind of setting the handler lives in—such as an urban versus a rural area—to the way a human handler learns comes into play.

Brown: The person comes in, and they actually do a little bit of speed dating with several dogs, many dogs, until the right match is found. And that takes a little bit of time. How does this dog feel on the end of the leash? And we look at both how the handler feels about it and how the dog feels about it.

We always look forward to the moment where the dogs look at Jill and I [and] go, “Thank you so much for the last two years. I'm going with this person.” And so, they actually switch over and they are ready to be with this person and do their job.

Oprihory: Amanda, an FBI Atlanta victim specialist-turned-crisis-response canine handler, remembered that moment instantly.

Amanda: Aimee said, “I'm going to have you handle Taz.” And she brought him in, and I said his name, and he ran up. And he's wiggling his tail and he's kind of doing like a chuffing noise like lions will do. And then, we kind of locked eyes and I was like, “This is it. We're doing this, buddy. Like, I hope you're ready because we're going to take this world by storm.” And so, we've been building that relationship ever since.

It was a perfect match.

Oprihory: For FBI purposes, once a canine-human match is made, these new professional partners quickly get to work learning the ropes of working together.

Earlier this year, Melissa and Amanda flew to the National Capital Region to meet their canine partners and complete a weeklong training intensive with Aimee and Jill.

Melissa: We were introduced to a variety of cues that the dogs know when we were at the training center back in October and in February. And so, this week has been really about utilizing those cues at the appropriate times and in all different situations. So we've practiced outside, inside, courtrooms, small spaces, big spaces, hallways, the streets of D.C. And so, it's just been a really concentrated effort on, you know, these are the cues that you're going to use, and this is how you do that in a variety of situations all day long.

Oprihory: Amanda adds...

Amanda: ...we're having to learn to be very aware of our surroundings and with the dogs but also being very vocal and using our commands and making sure that we provide those commands and being very direct.

Melissa: It’s been intense, but it's also been amazing to see how the dogs really look to us for that leadership and those cues in order to know like, “Okay, what are we doing next?

Oprihory: At the end of the week, ADW staff accompanied each of the new handlers back to their field offices to give the human-canine teams their final assessments. Both Amanda and Taz and Melissa and Peg passed with flying colors and are now certified to serve the Bureau in this unique capacity.

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Oprihory: According to Melissa, there’s more to working as a crisis response canine handler than meets the eye.

Melissa: People see the dog and they're like, “That's so much fun.” But it's a lot more work. We are listening to lectures, watching videos, reading books, trying to absorb so much information so we know how to better be a partner with our canine. It is very intentional work and work that has to continue on and on so that we don't lose the amazing training that ADW has done.

Melissa: It's a huge honor, but it's also a huge responsibility, right? Because what Melody and Gio and Wally and Staci have paved the way for and the amazing work that they've done, you know, we want to continue that and expand that as much as we can. I just cannot wait to see what these two are going to do to the lives of our victims. They are just going to make wonderful impacts on their lives during very terrible times.

Oprihory: Each crisis-response canine typically has an eight- to 10-year career.

When it eventually comes time for Wally and Gio to retire from the Bureau, their handlers have the option of paying that positive impact forward by adopting them—a privilege known as the right of first refusal. Melody, Staci, Amanda, and Melissa all agreed that, when given that choice, their answers will be a resounding “yes.”

Melissa: We will not be refusing.

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Oprihory: You can follow us on your favorite podcast player, including Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or YouTube.

You can also listen to our show via the myFBI Dashboard App. Visit fbi.gov/dashboardapp to learn more.

And you can subscribe to email alerts about new episodes at fbi.gov/podcasts.

I'm Jennifer-Leigh Oprihory with the FBI’s Office of Public Affairs. Thanks for listening.

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