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He’s the pet at Fire Station No. 5 and the firefighters love him, but he’s a lot more than a cheery pal who rides the truck with his buddies. Dylan is a disaster search dog, trained to find people trapped under rubble. 

The 5-year-old German Shepherd is one of 50 such dogs in the country certified at his level, said his trainer Darren Bobrosky, an apparatus operator at the station. 

Dylan’s prepared to find living victims of earthquakes, landslides, or bomb blasts whose only hope my be the finely tuned nose and digging skill of dogs like Dylan. 

“He would lead me. I stand back and observe,” said Bobrosky. “He pinpoints, barks and digs. All of his training leads to finding a victim popping out of a hole and playing tug-of-war with him.” 

Calm and friendly, the 70-pound shepherd is smaller than other males of his breed, who typically log in at about 95 pounds. His smaller size makes it easier for him to get into tight spaces and jump around and less likely that his activity will cause a secondary collapse, said his trainer. 

“He is what you would want in a rescue dog. He is calm an well-behaved, friendly and full of energy, with lots and lots of drive when he needs it,” said Bobrosky. 

Dylan plays tug-of-war all the time with Bobrosky, who removes the pull toy soon enough to make it interesting for the next time. Then Dylan gets his “that’s a good dog” compliment and a stroke on his neck. 

For Dylan’s disaster training, Bobrosky takes him to concrete and wood recycling plants and to sites and they work with other trainers and disaster dogs in the region. 

“We always keep our eyes open for demolition contractors and we work after hours in the rubble,” he said. 

The rescue dog “hits on any human scent” but through countless repetitions of trial and error, said Bobrosky, he looks for the “hidden scent.” 

His trainer said 20 people could be standing in an area, even though trainers try to clear it as much as possible, but Dylan knows the visible people are not his targets. 

Certified by FEMA and the California Office of Emergency Services Dylan has reached a high level of functioning now, said Bobrosky. 

Fire Chief Reginald Garcia considers Dylan to be a prime asset of the department because he’s ready to go in the event of an earthquake. 

Bobrosky keeps a pickup truck loaded with gear and food for 10 days to ride anywhere in the United States for that time period to rescue people with his dog. 

Dylan’s disaster training began simply with Bobrosky showing him a toy and then running and hiding from him. Now Dylan anticipates that someone is hiding from him. 

When Bobrosky got Dylan, the dog was 2-and-a-half years old and he was partially trained by Annie St. John in Petaluma. Bobrosky has worked with him for the same amount of time. 

In his view an older dog is a better bet for training. It’s a big investment of time because it takes two years to prepare a dog for full certification, he said. 

If a trainer is going to spend that much time, he or she wants to be sure the dog has strong hips and elbows and the right temperament which is hard to tell until the dog is one year old, he said. 

Bobrosky, who has been with the Berkeley Fire Department for 15 years, trains other dogs as well. He and wife have four Rottweilers in addition to Dylan, who lives with them when he’s not bunking at Station 5. 

The couple does obedience training and they enter their dogs in shows. Bobrosky said he had a champion Rottweiler who qualified for the Westminster Kennel Club show but the dog died of cancer at the age of 3. 

He and his wife take their dogs, who act as emotional therapists, to visit shut-ins and nursing home residents, and the dogs visit patients at John Muir Hospital in Walnut Creek. 

Bobrosky said Dylan lets loose and is “more wild” at home with his Rottweiler pals to play with, and he loves retrieving balls. 

The rescue dog has about five years of rescue fitness remaining in his career, and with good luck he won’t be pressed into service.