On a cold, bleak day in March 2010, a young Golden Retriever was found cowering in the driveway of a stranger’s home in Grand Junction, Colorado. The homeowner took the stray to the Roice-Hurst Humane Society, where everyone was convinced this handsome canine must surely be someone’s beloved pet.
Hoping to reach more people and find the dog’s owner, they took the dog to the Mesa County Animal Shelter. A week went by, and there were still no leads—no missing dog reports, no visitors, and no one recognized him. They returned him to Roice-Hurst Humane, where they could treat his kennel cough and find him a home.
Sick as he was, they couldn’t get him to sit still or stop chasing his ball. That’s when the Roice-Hurst shelter manager contacted SDF, and recruiters asked staff to shoot an evaluation video so they could see the dog in action. “Get that dog!” was the SDF training team’s response when she saw the footage. “Hunter” was transported to SDF to begin his training.
Since SDF already had a search dog named Hunter, the recruit needed a new name. SDF Board member, Fire Chief Michael McGroarty, had recently lost his battle with cancer, so it was decided the dog should be named “Chief” to honor him.
After six months of training, Chief was partnered with Andrew Pitcher, a seasoned civilian disaster search dog handler and member of SDF’s newest training group based in Lincoln, NE. Andrew’s former search dog, Andy, passed recently, and when Andrew saw Chief, he was struck by his resemblance to his former canine partner. “Chief is the spitting image of my Andy,” said Andrew. “When I first saw him, I nearly lost it. I just kept thinking, ‘I really hope I’ll get that dog!’ I was overjoyed when I was paired with him. He embodies much of the spirit of Andy but has his own unique personality.
Andrew and Chief achieved Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) Certification in May 2011, just six months after being paired. Their first deployment was to Moore, OK, where they searched for survivors following a devastating tornado in May 2013 and were able to ensure that no one was left behind.
Only months later, in September 2013, Nebraska Task Force 1 was called up again to assist out of state, this time to flooded Boulder County, CO. Chief and Andrew deployed to support the U.S. military and Colorado National Guard when a state of emergency was declared in the area. Four days after the flooding began, thousands of citizens were brought to safety via boats and helicopters, but over 1,000 people were still unaccounted for, and the continuing bad weather made the search difficult. Andrew and Chief searched for survivors for several days and returned home with their task force a week later to put the lessons they learned on this deployment to use in training for future disasters.
Since then, the team has re-certified multiple times and deployed many times as well. While a search dog and handler’s bond is strong, especially while working, Chief proved his loyalty to Andrew the night of November 16, 2015, when their vehicle went off the roadway and down an embankment on their way home from training. Miraculously, Chief was not injured and managed to get to Andrew, who was unconscious and awoke to Chief licking his face. After a night’s hospital stay, Andrew recovered and continued serving the state of Nebraska and the country with his dedicated partner at his side.
Andrew and Chief responded to Hurricanes Harvey and Irma in September 2017, when the area surrounding Houston, Texas, and Florida was affected by the deadly storms. After spending several weeks on those back-to-back deployments, Andrew and Chief boarded a plane and arrived in time to celebrate SDF’s National Training Center Grand Opening on September 24.
As Chief began to slow down and near retirement, Andrew was paired with his third SDF-trained partner, a Golden Retriever named Storm, in 2020. Chief remained an active member of Nebraska Task Force 1 with Andrew and Storm until he peacefully crossed the Rainbow Bridge of natural causes on November 30, 2022.
This incredible team exemplified the human-canine bond and proved the value of a former shelter dog in search and rescue work and as a wonderful companion. Chief will be honored at SDF’s Canine Memorial Wall to remember this extraordinary dog and his service to the nation.