Well, my first tornado was in 2012, but I worked another tornado a few years back that had a nine-mile track.

And trying to clear all of the structures in that nine-mile track, going house to house with people was just taking forever to get through.

So having the ability of the dogs to go through and clear it much quicker and then be able to pinpoint much easier a victim, whether they're unconscious or unable to respond, just makes everything better, and we're able to get people out quicker and in other instances, bring closure to families.

(Michael laughing) [Michael] Funding for this program comes from The Caring Foundation by Blue Cross Blue Shield of Alabama, with additional support from the Robert R. Meyer Foundation and Hoar Construction.

They're not the rich and famous.

(gentle music) Their profit comes not from the thing they sell, but the good they do.

Our nation has more than 1.5 million non-profits that employ one out of 10 Americans, providing services that otherwise go unfulfilled, keeping our community connected when all else fails.

But non-profits often lack the tools to properly promote themselves, to inspire more donors and volunteers and clients to their cause.

That's where I come in.

I've been in the non-profit world for nearly 20 years.

I connect non-profits with marketing professionals who donate their time and expertise so that at the end of the day, these life-giving organizations can do more, do better, by creating more, that's right, buzz.

I launched Buzz in 2020 in Virginia, then in 2023, brought it to my home state of Alabama.

But not until today's episode have I been able to bring both of my beloved states together.

For this, I have Dan Bryan to thank.

Dan is co-owner of the Roanoke Virginia advertising agency 5Points Creative, which has provided the pro-bono marketing buzz for a dozen different Virginia non-profits on my show.

So when Dan asked if I would feature an Alabama nonprofit near and dear to his heart, one to which 5Points Creative was donating a new website, well, I was happy to buzz to Tuscaloosa's Alabama Fire College to highlight a paws-itively fur-nomenal nonprofit, Alabama Task Force 1 K-9 search and rescue team.

(Artemis barking) Release.

Good girl!

Yeah, you got me!

You found... Good girl.

[Michael] Disasters don't respect state boundaries and neither does Alabama Task Force 1, which opens its training to any K-9 team in the country.

(gentle music) Dan Bryan.

This is Artemis from Roanoke, Virginia.

Melissa Anderson.

This is Rex, and from Illinois.

Carl Cameron, and this is Graham from Tuscaloosa.

Steven Diaz Lace.

This is Luna and this is Lexa from Georgia.

Matt Stevens.

This is Patton, Frankfort, Kentucky.

I'm Connor.

This is Ax from Tuscaloosa.

(Ax growls) J.T.

Torrance.

This is Perseus, Percy, from Lakeland, Florida.

[Michael] Why Alabama?

Well, that's because of a two-legged creature who has spent her life getting the most out of the four-legged variety.

(laughs) Ugly means you're making progress.

If this is perfect, then you're not challenging yourself.

I'm Jenifer Arballo.

I'm the K-9 coordinator for Alabama Task Force 1.

This is Terzah.

She's my live find puppy dog.

And this is Barnabas.

He searches for human remains.

My neighbor actually was a K-9 kennel master for the Los Angeles County K-9 unit.

And so my extra cash was going to take care of the dogs in the kennel during the day and let 'em out and feed and water them.

And so this concept of these dogs can do some amazing things was just what I grew up around.

All right, so this is our four-words game.

You are only allowed to use your four words.

You guys remember what they are?

-No?

-(trainer chuckles) -Uh, no.

-(all laughing) All right, you got four words.

You got two positive, two negative.

You got a positive bridge.

What's your positive bridge?

Started learning the owner side of things and what they do and how they understand the world.

And that set me in the direction of search and rescue.

Then you have your positive terminal marker.

What's your positive terminal marker?

I started out in California, ended up in Florida.

And when I lived in Panhandle of Florida, knew I wanted to do the disaster work, and Alabama was actually the closest task force to where I lived in the Panhandle of Florida.

So joined the task force originally just as a handler with a Rottweiler, (laughs) Pandora.

And then a few years after that, they asked me to take on the coordinator side of things.

And you can tell me all you want.

He knows a stay.

Yeah, he does know a stay.

When you put him on a stay, and you stand right here with your hand and you have all of this pressure right here and you've got everything telling him, "Don't you move or I'm gonna beat you," right?

Nah, you really do.

He understands that, but he doesn't understand that this is the same behavior you're looking for when you release all of that pressure, okay?

And it's just practice.

But the only way he's gonna understand it is if you keep giving him those bridges of, "That's right.

Good job."

And it's not in your nature, it's not in any male's nature, (chuckles) to be so positive and cheerleader-like.

But embrace your inner cheerleader!

(handlers chuckle) And if you aren't careful, I'm gonna make you walk around with pompoms.

-Oh.

-I did do that with Brian.

He had to walk around a whole practice with pompoms.

[Handler] Oh, God.

And then a few years after that, they said, "Well, can you train a dog for multiple disciplines?"

And I said, "Let's find out!"

(laughs) So Barnabas actually does human remains recovery and accelerant.

So in the dog world, we have what we call an active alert, meaning that they bark, so he'll bark when he finds human remains.

And then we have a passive alert, meaning that they show us based on like a sit or a lie-down or a stare.

And so on accelerant... Hey, Barnabas, come.

For accelerant, he will do a nose touch.

And so he's not really determining whether or not a fire was set by accelerants or not.

Most fire investigators can do that.

What he's doing is trying to narrow down a fire scene to something where if you collect here, it has a high probability of being able to be detectable for an accelerant.

[Michael] The task force is a government agency supported by the non-profit Friends of Alabama Task Force 1, which allows them to offer training to outside teams and organizations.

Jenifer Arballo's mission through the non-profit is to share her K-9 skills for free or at low cost to any team anywhere in the country.

When I first started out, I had a whole lot of people that taught me that the K-9 community is a big community of people, and we are all in this whole world with the same objective, with the same goal.

We want to be a service to our community.

[Michael] But community is a broadly defined place in the world of K-9 search and rescue.

My name's Howard Popple.

I am the program coordinator for Alabama Task Force 1.

(dogs barking) In the past year, we've been to Hurricane Debby, we went to Hurricane Helene in North Carolina, and then Hurricane Milton in Florida.

And then recently, we just got back from a deployment to the Texas floods in Kerr County.

One thing that was very important to me was we opened up our training philosophy and our program to anybody who wants to be a part of it, so from multiple teams.

We have a lot of people that travel a really long way to come out to our practices because of our dynamic and our training philosophy and how we build the dogs into what we get, and we welcome that.

We go out in the field, and we're working with the same people that we trained alongside.

'Cause we all get deployed to the same disasters and the same operational environments.

And it makes things so much better if we can come alongside somebody that we've seen in practice, that we've worked together.

We know to trust each other.

And so it's built a dynamic that has translated into the field very positively.

[Michael] Nowhere has this been put more to the test than when the task force was deployed to the Garren Creek community of North Carolina to search for victims of Hurricane Helene, (solemn music) as I learned in my conversation with Chris Davis of North Carolina Office of State Fire Marshal.

Realized that the impact for the community wasn't only just from the landslides.

Ultimately it was, but Garren Creek is also known as Craigtown, which there's family of Craigs.

Kevin Craig is an assistant chief that's there at Garren Creek, and he lost 11 family members in that storm, in that landslide.

And he worked alongside of Alabama Task Force 1 also.

Once the K-9 units arrived, then it made the process speed up tremendously.

The handlers for the K-9s, I mean, everybody was great to work with.

Everybody was very professional, personable.

So yes, it was very interesting to watch those folks work, the K-9s, the task force, everybody work and work together.

[Michael] I would hope that despite his loss, maybe this K-9 unit at least brought to him some closure.

Oh, absolutely, absolutely.

I mean, the whole Craigtown, you know, that was absolutely, you know, the worst thing of not knowing or, are you going to find them?

So once they found them, it did help to bring closure.

[Jenifer] Puppy dog!

[Michael] As highly trained as these dogs are, -they are still dogs.

-Good job!

Like, trying to have this conversation to keep him, -he is very ready to go.

-(dog barking) No, sir.

-Stop.

-Right on cue.

Stop.

-Good.

-(dog continues barking) And... Here.

Terzah!

You guys, come on.

Terzah, stop.

Come.

[Michael] Too much attention on me and not on Bill.

Come here.

Hey, can you sit, be a good dog for once?

Yeah, I know you can't.

It's tough.

Leave it!

Leave it.

(snaps fingers) Come here.

Up.

No, ma'am.

No.

(handler speaks in German) That's not gonna be on there, right?

(chuckles) (grinder buzzing) [Michael] Still, what these dogs can do amidst all the simulated distractions, noise, and chaos created at the Alabama Fire College deserves a round of a-paws.

(wistful music) Go, go, Bubba!

Tunnel, tunnel, tunnel!

So one of our little things on our list... Come here, here!

Is just a 20-second alert bark until I release him, so he's gonna continuously bark until I tell him to stop.

So like when we go find people, that's his thing.

He has to stay and bark until I get to him.

-Hey!

-(dog barking) Cot.

Yes, good boy.

I will take it.

I will take it.

[Handler] Go.

(whistle blows) -Come!

-(dog barking) [Observer] Nice.

Up.

Up.

Tunnel!

Yes.

Tunnel!

Tunnel!

Yes, tunnel!

(dog barking) Tunnel!

Tunnel, forward!

(handler speaks indistinctly) Yes!

Good boy, Frank!

Yeah!

That was so good.

Go up.

(wistful music continues) (Jenifer speaks indistinctly) (dog barking) No.

(speaks indistinctly) Yes.

(dog barking) (grinder buzzing) [Trainer] Over, through.

Go back, through.

Over, through.

Over.

Up!

Release.

(dog barking) Release now!

That's a good boy!

Good job!

-(dog barks) -(trainer speaks indistinctly) (dog barking) Bingo!

Good job, bud, good job.

Sit.

Tunnel.

Through.

-Tunnel.

-Try over.

Over.

[Trainer] And then reward her right there.

All right, come here.

Good girl.

(dog barking) Oh, good girl.

Good job.

[Michael] Team members volunteer their time and money, usually not reimbursed by their home fire departments, to travel to Alabama for Arballo's training.

Why?

Our fire department in general, It's something I had wanted to do since I was a kid.

[Michael] Because?

Because I like big red trucks and helping people.

-Simple as that?

-Simple as that.

Several years ago I read a book about the 9/11 search dogs and that inspired me to want to do something like that.

And it just sparked my interest.

I reached out to people and I'm here now.

I like the challenge of the dog training aspect of it.

I love the problem solving of working with a teammate like a K-9, you know?

And then the team that we got is pretty awesome.

So it's just, it checks all the boxes and I just love it.

I mean, I know you hear the cliche of always wanting to help people, right?

But in my world, it is just that true.

You just want to help.

You want get out there and you want to try to save a life if you can, which that's what he is.

He is a live find dog.

That's what we're training to do, is find alive people.

So that's my goal is to find somebody that's living and help them and save them.

You have to really love this.

You don't do this just because you want a cool T-shirt and you want to say you have working dogs.

I mean, you can try it like that, but you gotta put in a lot of time and dedication and sacrifice a lot, time with the family, money for other things, traveling outside of the country, stuff like that.

I mean, you're here every weekend, you're training every day, every night, multiple times a day if you want to hold the standard and be good at it.

So it takes a lot, it takes a lot of time away from yourself and your family.

Started in the fire department when I was at 18 as a volunteer, started at full-time in 21.

There's a lot of people that can do some ropes and do another discipline, but there's not a lot of dogs out there whenever they're needed, I feel like.

And it's extremely challenging.

(chuckles) And I like a challenge.

He will definitely test your patience.

Every day is something, [Melissa] The way Jenifer goes ahead and talks with us.

This game has become a fan favorite.

She breaks things down for us and makes us feel like we're all together and not on our own.

I haven't tried any other team and I don't know if I will.

I think I'll just stick with my Alabama team.

Our task force is unique in that we need to be able to work with them off-leash and understand that we have the ability to communicate what we're looking for in an operational zone.

So if you think of a disaster zone, you know, the latest one we were in was 143 miles and that is way too much for people to search effectively.

So what we're asking them to do is narrow that 143 miles of disaster zone down to targeted locations so we can just focus on these 15 areas of potential interest of humans.

And so now we've just narrowed the scope of what we're working on.

So your negative terminal... "No, sir."

[Michael] There's a science to Jenifer Arballo's training.

And so we teach them at a very early age, just starting with simple little cots, four ideas.

We call it a positive bridge, meaning that the dog is on the right track to keep doing what they're doing, but we're not ready to reward them yet.

And then we have what we call a positive terminal marker, which the dogs learn that you have completed my task.

You have done what I've asked you to do.

Come and get your reward.

And then we have a negative bridge which says, offer me a new behavior, because that's not what I want.

And then you have your negative terminal marker that says you are so far off and wrong, we need to reset, we need to restart.

You have to complete one of the obstacles on the outside of the dartboard.

[Michael] But there's also an element of fun and games.

I see some plates with some... Yeah.

So there's are cat food in there.

So this drill is to get the dog to move to the handler through the distraction field.

So going from cone to cone to the end.

Artemis, come.

Good girl.

Artemis, come.

Good girl.

Come.

Leave it, girl.

[Trainer] Going right around all that food.

Ah, she sniffed at that one.

Come.

Good girl!

And as long as we can keep it light, we can keep it fun.

We can keep them accurate in the field, because if we start changing the way we work because it's operational, it throws them off and it changes the way they work.

So if I can get all the handlers to operate with this idea of we're just out playing a game.

No matter what we're doing, we're just out playing a game.

It's a serious game, but if we can breed that into our relationship, we have much more consistent dogs.

Search.

[Michael] These dogs are trained as either live find, meaning they can search for living humans, or H.R., which stands for human remains.

It's an important distinction at a disaster site, so that search teams can prioritize rescue efforts.

I got to witness the distinction up close.

Maybe a little too close.

Come with me.

[Michael] All right.

What are you doing with me?

I am gonna stick you in a hole so that our live find dogs can come and find you.

And when they get to you, they're going to bark and they're just gonna bark until the handler gets there and then rewards them.

[Michael] All right.

So I'm following you?

-You are following me.

-Oh, boy.

And they will find me, right?

I'm not gonna be stuck here forever?

-No, no, no.

-Okay.

And I'm gonna give you a spot that I can cover with a pallet so you can see out it.

[Michael] All right.

I'd like for this to be a live find, not an H.R.

situation.

(Jenifer laughs) All right.

So I'm getting in there?

-Yep.

-All right.

Wish me luck.

[Trainer] All right, step on in there.

More like wish the dogs luck.

[Trainer] Dogs don't need luck.

They're good.

They've got lots of training and skill.

Okay.

All right.

All right.

Here we go.

There we go.

-Does that work?

-Perfect.

-Okay.

-All right.

And, Michael, if you're not comfortable, we can find a smaller hole for you to get in.

-(all laugh) -Thanks, Dan.

All right.

Hopefully we have some well-trained dogs here.

(dog barking) (Michael chuckling) (dog barking) I'm saved.

Yeah.

Good girl.

Good girl.

(dog barking) [Jenifer] Good girl!

-Pass that on up here.

-My savior.

(laughs) -If not, we'll do it again.

-All good.

We made it.

Good dogs.

Good dogs.

(upbeat music) Thank y'all for coming down today.

I appreciate you letting my team and I put this website together for you.

You know, 5Points Creative, we're in Roanoke, Virginia, but we work all over the country.

And these websites here really are a vital part of the organization, 'cause they validate the great work that you're doing.

So this is the current website as it stands right now.

It's a bit outdated.

So this is the new website.

[Jenifer] Oh, look at that.

That is really cool.

Yeah.

That's awesome.

Yeah, I like that.

So here's the hero image.

Capabilities, resources.

Join the task force.

Of course, the K-9 team.

Capabilities page, more information about the task force, as well as some information about the leadership.

The join page.

So there is an interest form on there that people that are interested can complete.

The resources page, and this is more of a broader resource, so there's two sections.

There's resources you can post up anything you want to have living on the website and send people to you, whether it's minimum training standards, things people have to do for annual refreshers or any other packing lists, forms, or whatever else there might be.

And then there's also a section for frequently asked questions.

There is a contact form as well.

Finally, the part that I know everyone is waiting for, -the K-9 page.

-(participants cheer) Terzah and Barnabas, you're all over this thing!

So information about the K-9 section, live find canines.

and H.R.

dogs.

And on top of that, Jenifer, I know that you do a lot of teaching and sharing of information.

So we have a whole section dedicated to just resources.

If you have anything that you wanna share with people, you wanna put it in one place so people can find it easier, Melissa can upload it to the website.

Awesome.

So these would be available to the public?

[Dan] Yes.

[Jenifer] So the big human community can come here and... -Exactly.

-Awesome.

[Dan] Exactly.

And it all links out right down here.

[Jenifer] That's awesome.

[Dan] And that is the new website.

[Howard] That's amazing.

Looks great.

-Thank you.

-Of course.

Thank you for letting us do this.

We appreciate it.

(participants applaud) We are not clapping for you, sir.

(laughs) I love that we can share with the whole community.

It's always been something that I've been really, it's been really important to me to make sure that the whole K-9 community, not just Alabama, has access to what we do and how we do it.

So love the section, that we can just make that available outside of things.

Thank you.

That was very thoughtful.

[Dan] Are you happy?

Yeah?

Yeah?

Love it.

(no audio)