Sparky will turn 13 in early January, she said. For more than 10 years she has been searching for people and bodies of the dead.
As Borisenko said, during her time working in the canine unit, Sparky found more than 200 bodies of the dead.
Also thanks to her, three people were saved.
In addition, the shepherd dog was involved in search missions in Kharkov, Donetsk, Lugansk, Zaporozhye, Dnepropetrovsk, Nikolaev, Kherson, Rivne, Poltava, Kirovograd, Zhytomyr, Sumy and Kyiv regions.
“I don’t know: are there any dogs of this age in the world that remain in service and continue to carry out a difficult mission – for people?! Sparky is a living legend of the Pavlograd search and rescue canine team “Antares”,” wrote Borisenko. “It was with Sparky, in 2013, that the author’s development of a training program for universal dogs began (searching for bodies and remains of the dead, as well as searching for living people in man-made debris and natural environment)”.
Since 2014, the shepherd has been providing psychological support to the military and children in specialized institutions and rehabilitation centers, noted the head of the Antares detachment.
Sparky was certified by the GIZ organization (Germany) as a therapy dog.
