Beaver Creek Resort trains new puppy to be avalanche dog

BEAVER CREEK, Colo. — Beaver Creek Resort announced a new puppy will spend the next two years training to be an avalanche dog.

Bridger is a 10-week-old female black Labrador Retriever from Calhan, Colorado.

Alex Oberg, a ski patrol member at Beaver Creek for the last four years, will train the young pup. Oberg will start Bridger on socializing and obedience training. Then, Oberg will progress to teaching Bridger how to use her nose to sniff out anyone trapped under snow.

Bridger joins six other dogs training to be on ski patrol, including two other black Labrador Retrievers— Ruby and Luna, an Australian Cattle Dog/Border Collie Meeka, a silver Labrador Retriever Trigger, a German Wirehaired Pointer Piper and a Golden Retriever Telli.

While these pups are cute, they serve an important purpose.

More than 1,100 avalanches were reported in Colorado’s mountains in February, including 23 that caught and carried at least one person, according to the Colorado Avalanche Information Center.