Landfill serves as training spot for dogs

Idaho Disaster Dogs

Medical Lake, Wash. – To prepare K-9s for disaster events, like an earthquake or terrorist attack, the WM
Graham Road Recycling and Disposal Center in Eastern Washington is serving as a training destination for
firefighters and their dogs from nearby Idaho. On the WM’s property is a concrete pile — meant to resemble
a collapsed building — that trainers use to teach their dogs to smell out survivors.

Known as the Idaho Disaster Dogs, the organization is nationally recognized and was even put on standby for
several natural disasters, like Hurricane Sandy and the earthquake in Haiti. According to local news station
KHQ, the department has four “live find” K-9s and one cadaver dog that train year-round and have been used
to help on local missing persons cases.