German Shepard Becomes First Dog To Find Avalanche Survivor in America

German Shepards are notorious guard dogs, but they can be trained to do other remarkable feats of bravery.

St. Bernards get all the credit for snow rescues, and deservingly so. But it was a German Shepard named Bridget, who heroically became the first dog in North America to find a survivor in the worst mountain avalanche disaster in ski resort history.

It happened in early spring of 1982 at Alpine Meadows near Lake Tahoe during one of the biggest winter storms to blow into the Sierra Mountain range. Seven people were killed in the avalanche and after five days of searching rescuers nearly called off the search.

That’s when Bridget leaped into action thanks to her trainer Roberta Huber of Wildlife Finders, an organization formed in 1975 to use dogs to search for people missing in avalanches.

No dog that came before her had ever alerted for a survivor in North America, until Bridget did the unthinkable and sniffed out Anna Conrad after 117 hours of being buried alive in the snow.

In her book A Wall of White Jennifer Woodlief wrote, “She bound over to Roberta, giving unmistakable signals that she had found someone.” “The dog was ecstatic, frolicking back and forth, leaping up and down, licking Roberta. Bridget communicated with her handler in every way she possible could.”

Conrad made a full recovery but lost a leg due to frostbite. And Bridget went onto to become one of the most famous Shepards in dog history.