Photo courtesy of Suzanne Elshult
(SEATTLE) A “hero” competition that began with 400 candidates has been narrowed to 21 semi-finalists, and one of these four-legged heroes resides in Seattle.
“Lincoln, who’s five years old now, is my second search dog,” says owner and trainer Jon Izant. “We started him training when he was about 5 or 6 months old with King County Search Dogs.”
Lincoln has made the semi-finals for the 2022 American Humane Hero Dog competition. So has “Keb” from Snohomish County.
“She started when she was 10 weeks old,” says’ owner Suzanne Elshult. “She and I have been on literally hundreds of missions.”
Keb and Lincoln’s humans are proud to represent Washington, a state that ended-up with three of the 21 semi-finalists. Both Keb and Lincoln work hard, they serve, and they’re dedicated.
But they’re also dogs.
“I remember one year, my doctor looked concerned and asked me to come into his office,” Suzanne recalls. “He started asking me about my relationship with my husband. It took me a little bit to figure out he (doctor) was concerned about all the bruises on my body. I said ‘no no, its not my husband, its my dog.'”
Apparently Keb likes to jump all over Suzanne.
Neither dog consented to be interviewed for this story, which is fine. You’re just going to have to take Jon and Suzanne’s word that either of these dogs deserve the top honor. Keb’s service and dedicated after the Oso Landslide speaks for itself.
“I think we were the first dog deployed on that mission, and so we had the opportunity to deploy 14 days over the course of six weeks,” Suzanne told Northwest Newsradio.
Keb had three “finds” on that recovery mission.
You can actually vote for Keb or Lincoln to be America’s next hero dog.
CLICK HERE to vote for Lincoln
CLICK HERE to vote for Keb
And while you cast your vote, both dogs are standing by, ready to serve the next time there’s a need.
“We’ve been doing this long enough, I think closing-in on close to 100 missions, that he (Lincoln) now recognizes when either the specific ring tone from the sheriff’s office goes off,” Joe explains, “or when I start to bring up the search and rescue gear from the basement.”