The Valley Ambulance Authority has a new, floppy-eared, extremely food-motivated recruit with a first-of-his-kind mission for the Pittsburgh area.<\/p>\n
Goose, an 11-week-old yellow Labrador puppy, is believed to be the region\u2019s only Critical Incident Response Team K-9.<\/p>\n
He will receive a year and a half of training in the same way other K9s tasked with sniffing out drugs, bombs and electronic devices do, but his nose will target cortisol, a chemical emitted by humans when they are stressed.<\/p>\n
As a member of the Ambulance Authority, Goose\u2019s job will be to arrive on scenes and provide real-time analysis and aid for his fellow first responders by seeking out the most stressed workers and helping to calm them down before they move on to their next call.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s a pressing issue in Allegheny County, where more than a half dozen first responders have taken their own lives in the last couple of years. One of them worked in the 911 call center, which is part of the Ambulance Authority\u2019s service area.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve seen a lot of horrific items,\u201d Chief Brian Herskovitz said. \u201cThat next call you go to is going to be grandma with a stubbed toe. She\u2019s going to need you to be as empathetic as possible while that previous call could\u2019ve been a child fatality.\u201d<\/p>\n
A recent anonymous study by New York State found 38% of first responders reported experiencing PTSD symptoms. Of those surveyed, 16% reported having suicidal thoughts.<\/p>\n
More than three-quarters of respondents said they couldn\u2019t recognize when they needed help.<\/p>\n
A K9 like Goose is not cheap, especially for the nonprofit Authority. Herskovitz showed off the specially rigged SUV that was designed with multiple redundancies to alert staff members if the temperature inside the vehicle becomes too high.<\/p>\n
However, Herskovitz, a former 911 call taker, said he believed it was worth it, and hoped that other agencies seeing Goose\u2019s impact would invest in their own team members.<\/p>\n
Goose has already been on several scenes even as he\u2019s still learning to sniff scents, signal to his handler and work in patterns. He will also be introduced to a variety of scenarios like hardware stores, trains and farms to help him limit distractions.<\/p>\n
Herskovitz said he expected Goose to work for five to eight years after his training was complete.<\/p>\n
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