Train crash site may be last search for service dog

Manny was waiting up for Abby when she got home a little after 3 a.m. last Saturday from the Chatsworth train crash scene.

"Where you been?" he sniffed.

The two search dogs had worked together after 9-11, Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, and the La Conchita mudslides.

They were tight. Manny was hurt that Abby was on the job without him.

"He sniffed her up, like he was asking: `Where were you? What were you doing without me? Tell me what happened,"' handler Ron Weckbacher said.

Manny was Weckbacher's search partner for 10 years, until the dog retired at age 11 a couple of years ago. The Thousand Oaks resident got him from the National Disaster Search Dog Foundation in Ojai, which provides search dogs for fire departments and a few civilian handlers, including Weckbacher.

Manny was one of the best. But trying to find victims still alive in the rubble of a disaster is strenuous, dangerous work. It's a young dog's job.

"I knew at La Conchita that it was time," Weckbacher said. "Manny would do whatever I asked of him, but I was afraid he'd get into a spot where he couldn't dig himself out.

"I wouldn't let that happen. I gave Manny a hug after Conchita and told him that was it. He had done his service.

"He's home living life large now."

Next month, Abby will be living life large with Manny. She's turning 11. It's time for her to retire. She's done her service.

Weckbacher took her in two years ago when Debra Tosch, director of the nonprofit search-dog foundation, got too busy with administrative duties to put in the training time needed to keep Abby sharp and ready.

"We'd worked at 9-11 and Katrina together," Tosch said about Weckbacher. "I didn't want anyone but Ron to work with Abby. Those dogs are like our children."

A couple of times a month, Weckbacher still drops Abby off at Tosch's home for a few days. Joint custody, she laughs.

After Chatsworth, Weckbacher knew it was time for Abby, too.

He could see it a couple of hours into her extensive search for survivors through the twisted wreckage of three Metrolink cars late Friday night.

The firefighters had done all they could. Now, if the search dogs didn't find any survivors, they weren't there.

"Abby's very agile, but I could tell she was stretched to her limits picking through all that glass and twisted metal," Weckbacher said.

"One of the cars was propped up at a 45-degree angle, and it was slippery inside with fuel and blood. She fell through a hole and dropped about eight feet to the tracks.

"She wasn't hurt, but I could tell she was getting tired. They (search and cadaver dogs) know what's going on. It's stressful work."

Fourteen search dogs and handlers from the National Disaster Search Dog Foundation were sent to the Gulf Coast after Hurricane Ike hit last weekend to aid in search and rescue efforts.

It didn't surprise Weckbacher, a financial adviser, that Manny was waiting up for Abby, wondering where she'd been.

"They're all high-drive dogs and want to work," he said. "When I go out with Abby, Manny always beats us to the front door, like he's telling me, 'Hey, I want to go with you guys.' "

But Manny already has done his service at some of the country's biggest disasters, and now Abby has completed hers.

Next month, they'll both be living life large.

For more information on the foundation, which needs volunteers to find more high-energy Labrador and golden retrievers to serve as disaster search dogs, log on to www.searchdogfoundation.org, or call (888) 459-4376.