Most of the organization’s work is with police and military dogs, so Berg and the Aspen Snowmass patrol dogs — there are eight of them, plus a puppy in training, that are specially trained to find avalanche victims and do other search and rescue work — can count themselves especially lucky to be recipients of the specialized K9 Storm work vests and Rex Specs dog glasses. Apparently, someone at Spikes had seen a CNN piece on the Snowmass patrol dogs earlier this winter, and from that, decided to make the offer.
For those not intimately aware of what a patrol dog does, it’s not obvious how important the proper gear is to the canines’ work. K9 Storm, a Canadian company, flew its staffers to Aspen to measure the dogs for the custom, load-bearing harnesses, which arrived a few weeks later. Thanks to this custom fit, and because they’re load bearing, Berg explains, “they give the handler an amazing amount of control over the dog.”
rich-text