ESU Sgt. Brian McDonnell<\/a>, a former Army paratrooper who was last seen racing into the South Tower in an attempt to save countless lives.<\/p>\n\u201cThe family of Officer Brian McDonnell, they\u2019re the ones that named him Robot,\u201d said the pup\u2019s handler, NYPD Police Officer Kayla Kaiser.<\/p>\n
Robot the budding rescue dog was named in honor of NYPD Officer Brian McDonnell\u2019s unfaltering dedication to his life-saving job. Paul Martinka for NY Post<\/p>\n
\u201cHe came to work, and he was very set on work, and it\u2019s all he wanted to do. He was like a robot. He just did his job, he did it well. He did a great job in Truck One. <\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s why they chose the name \u2018Robot,\u2019 and [the dog\u2019s] the same way,\u201d Kaiser said. \u201cHe\u2019s very focused on working. He comes here, and he looks straight at the pile. He just wants to run on it. All he wants to do is work.\u201d<\/p>\n
Robot and the other clever canines spent the morning rifling through the concrete slabs, old cars and other debris littered throughout the Department of Sanitation site that mimics the ruins of a natural disaster.<\/p>\n
The canines work on finding \u201cvictims\u201d trapped beneath the rubble. Paul Martinka for NY Post<\/p>\n
The dozen K9s focused on finding \u201cvictims\u201d who were hiding in barrels, before moving on to the two 10,000-square-foot piles of rubble.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe dog will then go and sniff each one of the barrels, and he has to find the live person inside. Once he finds them, he\u2019s gonna bark, indicate that they\u2019re there, and he gets a toy,\u201d Kaiser sid.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have cars, we have boats in there, we have concrete, there\u2019s steel pipes in there, rebar, so it really replicates it very well so that when they do get deployed, it\u2019s not a new sight for them,\u201d she said of the faux disaster scene.<\/p>\n
The training ground mimics that of a natural disaster. Paul Martinka for NY Post<\/p>\n
\u201cThey know what they\u2019re doing, they know how to do it, and they feel very comfortable on the pile because they\u2019ve done it a million times.\u201d<\/p>\n
The doggie crew is working toward eventually joining the New York Task Force One (NY-TF1) team, an elite unit of FEMA\u2019s National Urban Search and Rescue Response System staffed by FDNY Special Operations and NYPD ESU, and coordinated by NYC Emergency Management.<\/p>\n
The department offered a glimpse inside the program in honor of National Dog Day on Wednesday. <\/p>\n
\u201cThey know what they\u2019re doing, they know how to do it, and they feel very comfortable on the pile because they\u2019ve done it a million times,\u201d Kaiser said of the dogs\u2019 training. Paul Martinka for NY Post<\/p>\n
Once through the rigorous process, the pooches will be deployed to states across the country to assist in search and rescue missions, especially hurricane relief.<\/p>\n
The NY-TF1 team was first launched in the 1980s and was one of the elite crews that responded to the Oklahoma City bombing.<\/p>\n
But it credits its response to the Sept.11 attacks as one of the most formative to its existence.<\/p>\n
Fifty-one members of the unit gave their lives that day.<\/p>\n
\u201cTheir courage and dedication represent the very essence of our task force, and we remain steadfast in our vow to honor their memory with every deployment,\u201d NY-TF1 states on its website.<\/a><\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tStart your day with all you need to know\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
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\u201cWe carry the memory of the fallen\u2014both those who gave their lives on 9\/11 and those lost to related illnesses\u2014forever in our hearts. With every mission, NY-TF1 strives to honor their legacy, upholding the highest standards of integrity, courage, and dedication.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The NYPD is training a fresh batch of pooches for an elite unit with touching 9\/11 ties. The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":330097,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[5301,5025,57,9,11,10,103,16703,11803,58],"class_list":["post-330096","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-9-11","tag-fema","tag-metro","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-headlines","tag-new-york-news","tag-nypd","tag-search-and-rescue","tag-september-11","tag-us-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/330096","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=330096"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/330096\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/330097"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=330096"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=330096"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=330096"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}