Robin's Nest from American Humane - From Helicopters to High-Stakes Ops: A Coast Guard K-9’s Journey

Episode Date: February 3, 2025

In this inspiring episode of Robin’s Nest, Dr. Robin Ganzert speaks with Petty Officer Alesha Horn about her remarkable K-9 partner, Niki—a finalist in the American Humane Hero Dog Awards. As one of fewer than 18 Coast Guard K-9s, Niki has completed over 250 high-stakes operations, securing major events like the Rose Bowl and protecting millions aboard Washington State’s ferries.From detecting a firearm that led to a fugitive’s arrest to jumping out of helicopters, Niki’s courage knows no bounds. She also visits schools, inspiring the next generation about the lifesaving role of military dogs. Don’t miss this powerful story of service, sacrifice, and an unbreakable bond.

Welcome to Robin's Nest. Many of us feel a deep bond with animals, from the pets we cherish at home to the endangered species in nature. Join us for lively, informative conversations where together we will build a more humane world. Today we're joined by a true hero who exemplifies courage and dedication

and service to our country. Petty Officer Alicia Horn is a canine handler with the US Coast Guard in Seattle, Washington. She works alongside her incredible partner, Nikki, a five-year-old Belgian Malinois, German Shepherd Mix, and a hero dog finalist in the military dog category. Together they've completed over 250 operations, logged more than 4,000 working hours, and safeguarded millions of lives on land and at sea. Alicia I'm so glad you're here in Robin's Nest today. Thank you so much for joining us. Thank you so much for having me. And you look incredible in

your uniform. Thank you. We thank you for your service to our country. Thank you so much. Why don't you tell our listeners a little bit about what you incredible in your uniform. We thank you for your service to our country. Thank you so much. Why don't you tell our listeners a little bit about what you do in your day job? So what we do in our day job, we're part of the US Coast Guard, the military service. And with Nikki and I, we're both enlisted in the Coast Guard. And our day to day is explosive detection up and down at the Pacific Northwest in Seattle. And what that kind of looks like is we help keep the safety and security of all the ferry systems up there.

Seattle is home to the largest ferry passenger system in the entire United States, second in the world to Canada, actually. Second in the world. Second in the world. I don't think people know that. I know it's... Remarkable. Insane. So that's our primary responsibility locally where we are, but then we also deploy out

in support of really big events that might have some type of negative views from others that are trying to harm the event itself or the people attending. And that is like the Super Bowl, the Olympic trials. We were just at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena. Oh, you saw our good friend, Carson Cressley there, I'm sure. We did. Yes. We did.

Yes. And he'll be with us for the Hero Dog Awards. Oh, wow. Yes. He's our host. So I know he'll be excited to see you again. You need to tell him, make sure that you've mentioned to him that you were at the Rose Bowl. I will. That's incredible. Yes. I just want to back up a minute because what you do is so important for our country and serving

our country in a special way is incredible. Why did you join the Coast Guard? What made you join? Why did you join the Coast Guard? What made you join? I'd love to know that. So I joined ten years ago now. Ten years ago? Wow! Yes. It's been an incredible journey. I've been just incredibly fortunate with my career, everything to build up. But to answer your question, I originally joined because my great-grandfather was in World War II. And the summer before I went into my senior year of high school, I took care of him before he had passed. So during that summer, he started kind of sharing

more of his stories and the level of fulfillment and the joy, because I'm sure as you know, kind of sharing more of his stories and the level of fulfillment and the joy, because I'm sure, as you know, a lot of World War II veterans don't talk about their service as much, and it's not as illustrated and publicized as it is today. So I just, I became fascinated with the fact of serving your country and doing a little bit more and

helping in some type of way. And that I didn't want to go to college. So I think within that year, I ended up going to every recruiter possible, kind of learning about all the different services. And while I was in a different recruiter's office I saw the one and only I think Coast Guard commercial I'd ever seen up until that point. They're everywhere now of course. But yeah, I just I fell in love with the idea of helping people and serving people locally in our country and then I originally joined for the law enforcement mission or counter-narcotics So it's a special place in my heart. Yes

So that's what I did before this for four years and then here right now here I am with Nikki and it's just been amazing Well, it is wonderful and I love the fact that your great-grandfather, did I get that right? Yes. That he inspired you too because of his service. He was part of that greatest generation that served so if he was opening up to you before he passed the stories you must have heard had to be remarkable and I think sometimes we do forget all that has been paid, those debts paid to our country back then are remarkable, right? We owe them so much. We do.

We absolutely do. We owe them so much. And I love that he inspired you. And I'm sure he's looking down from heaven now saying, yes, and probably voted for Nikki. I hope. I'm sure he did. He would have loved her. I know he would have. I love that. Well thank you and a 10-year career is incredible too. It's been a long time. I

hadn't even, I just hit it back in September of this past year. It seems like it's gone so fast but also so long at the same time. Yes, well you've learned a lot and you've done a lot and that brings us to this incredible dog in your life. Yes. And again I'd love to learn more and as we would in Loveman's Nest about how you met Nikki, how Nikki is special and how she was trained, you know, because it's pretty remarkable what she does, what you two do together. Please share. So I, my, sorry let me back up. Nikki and I met back in 2021 after I had been selected to be a handler. In the Coast Guard you have to apply. It's a out of, kind of like an out of rate billet. So for us you have to apply and keep your fingers crossed and hopefully

the stars align and you get to be selected as a handler. There's only 18 of us in the entire Coast Guard. I was going to say, I thought it was less than 20. Oh yes. And it's remarkable for how much the Coast Guard covers to have less than 20 canines. Yes, it is. It's a very small number for the amount of work that we do up and down each side of the coastlines.

But yes, so we met up once I got to the schoolhouse and I met her the very second week I was there and instantly I knew that she was just this ball of energy that just had this drive to work and she loved what she did. As soon as we'd step into an area she could just see the fire in her ignite. She's been incredible and amazing since day one since I had her and that maybe that's just me having a little bit of mom favoritism for her. She's a workhorse, she's a power horse and I have just enjoyed every second of being with her. When a canine starts the Coast Guard training program, how old are they, and then what kind of training have they had before they get into it when they start working with you?

Yes, so before the handlers get paired with a dog, we are paired up with them through the TSA schoolhouse. So the schoolhouse we go to is at Lackland Air Force Base. It's the same schoolhouse that the DOD handlers run through. But we're on the TSA. Department of Defense for those of you. Yes, Department of Defense and then the Coast Guard is Department of Homeland Security. Okay. So we run through the TSA's handler program there. And then, so TSA procures all the dogs. They send all their trainers out to wherever they're going to select them from. Nikki's actually from Hungary.

Oh my. Wow. So she traveled far and wide to come to the schoolhouse. And then they run them through the baseline detection of teaching them how to respond to the odor sources that they are going to be certified in. And then you get paired up with the dog and then you work with them throughout the entirety of that course, hopefully, as long as everything goes right and you both pass all the certifications. And then you graduate and you go out into the world and with the Coast Guard, we're our own

trainers, we're our own facilitators, we do everything. In each kennel, it's different than the DoD. They have their own trainers and the dogs don't go home with them at the end of the day. In the Coast Guard, everything is on you. So Nicky's with you 24-7, then? 24-7, yes. So she is like your dog. She is. I love that.

She is. We go everywhere together. I don't think we've been apart more than a month since I've had her over the past three and a half years. So we're constantly together. And so when I think about that too, I think about her retirement at one day She'll retire we have an opportunity to adopt her upon a retirement. Yes, I will All the Coast Guard handlers get first-line adoption rights so we I

Don't think I Don't know who wouldn't want to adopt their dog at the end of the six year tour. So it's a six year tour for Nikki. It is. Yes, yes. And you want to be with her all of those six years, right? Entirely. That's fantastic. Luckily, I have been the only one to have her and she will be the only dog that I will ever work.

So in the Coast Guard, because there's only 18 of us, you get one dog, one tour with your dog, which is the six years, and then you go back to your normal rating specialty. Okay. Okay. So this is be your one and only time as a canine handler. It will, at least on the Coast Guard side. Yes. The Coast Guard side. Wow. I've learned so much already. This is amazing. Now let's talk about Nikki. What kind of dog is she? I know, but our listeners in Robin's Nest may not know. And she's gorgeous, by the way. Thank you.

She is. She is. Nikki is a five-year-old Belgian melanoise shepherd. She is just as energetic as energetic can be and has a lust for life and work. And the weekends are her life and work and the weekends are her worst days and the weekdays are her best. So she's incredible. Well I think there are some of the incredible Broadway Belgian malinois

usually used with SIL teams and special forces too right so they're more of the compact shepherd. Yes. Right. They're a little more sleek. a little more sleek than the traditional German Shepherd, right? Yes, right So I know that we've seen them on a lot of the the reels that people see on Instagram and they see those dogs It's usually a Belgian right Belgian Malinois. Yes, that's wonderful. So when you're working together you do some incredible things Can you share with our listeners in the nest? some incredible things. Can you share with our listeners in the nest about some of those incredible maneuvers? Because I know many of us have seen them

on some sort of social media channel, hopping out of airplanes, things like that. Tell us about some of your daring adventures with Nikki. Yes, so one of our qualifications as a K9 explosive detection team is we have vertical delivery training. So that sounds like, okay, like something that happens with Amazon vertical delivery training, but in real life, what is that?

So vertical livery is the ability for us to get delivered via a helicopter to an asset that might not be accessible via a boat or pulling it into port. So what we do is we hop into the helicopter and the pilots and the teams on there will lower us to whatever type of facility or boat that needs to be searched in the event of a bomb threat or some type of interest for the dogs to go out to. So when you say vertical delivery training, you're really, you and Nikki are hopping out of helicopters. We are, she's strapped.

On possibly negative targets, right? Because something's going wrong there that you have to investigate. That's a lot of courage. And we talk about heroes, but it's really heroes on both ends of the leash, and you're one of those heroes. Oh, thank you, Robin. For what you do. Thank you but it's really heroes on both ends of the leash. And you're one of those heroes. So thank you for what you do.

Thank you. It's super fun. I mean, you call it super fun. I would be super scared. I don't know jumping out of a helicopter with my dog. Mr. Darcy and I could not jump out of the helicopter. It would not work well for us. It took a little bit of practice and some reinforcement on Nikki's point.

But now she just kind of hangs out in there and waits till we go out and she's strapped to me the entire time. So I think that helps a little bit with that comfortability piece that she knows that we're together. And when we get down, we unstrap from the line that brings us down and we start our search of the vessel,

coming with her the entire time. That's wonderful. And so she knows her mom's with her. Yes. And you're both doing it. You're both are just amazing. So you do vertical delivery and I understand I want to get this right 250 high-stake operations more than 4,000 working hours. I mean I'm not sure if our listeners in the nest today understand 250 high-stake operations. That's stunning. Can you describe one or two of those, if you're allowed to?

Yes. So, all of our operations, whether it's local responding to bomb threats up and down the Pacific Northwest or in the lower Seattle area, exploring the ferry systems or going out for big events like the Super Bowl and the Olympic trials were constantly just out the door and trying to provide the most amount of safety and security for the general public. And the biggest part for all the operations that we do and the purpose of Nikki's job and why these working dogs are so spectacular and needed is it's insurmountable the amount of work and a drive that fuels these dogs to go and keep

everybody safe and Nikki every day she unknowingly goes out the door and goes to work to unknown goes out the door and goes to work to unknown threats. Yes, exactly. And she does it so selflessly and she thrives off of it. So do you. So do you, she's going out with you too. So I wanna make sure everyone understands, it's that bond, it's that special bond you and Nikki have together.

And you're doing both as heroes for our communities to keeping us all safe it's remarkable and I still when I think about this and I think about you're getting into a helicopter you're hopping on you know you're jumping out to get onto a boat and we all have seen enough in the news to understand those threats are real threats of terrorism threats of crime and criminal networks and all. And Coast Guards are front line. We are. We like, if it's out there, we can get called out for it. And we all know the events that just happened in New Orleans and up and down. We were actually in Pasadena at the Rose Bowl this past week, as you know, and there was

an explosion just south of where we were. So these things happen and that's why these dogs are so important to keep everybody safe. Exactly right. And you're very important as a canine handler especially. So when I think about all of this, the high-stake threats, unbelievable, stunning. I'm just, I'm blown away by the work that you do. So I want to pivot now because we're all inspired and also amazed, which is a beautiful thing,

and I want to talk about Nicky's role in educational outreach and inspiring young minds about military working dogs and the opportunity to be their partners because I think probably all the services are looking to recruit and as they hear your story, what a great story for the Coast Guard to recruit new service members. And I think about that for Army and for the Navy and the Marines. These incredible stories such as yours is one of those inspiring examples, particularly

for all of us who love dogs. Absolutely. So tell us about how the Coast Guard is able to take this story and maybe inspire the next generation. Absolutely. So our recruiters are amazing, especially up in Seattle. They love having Nikki and I out at any type of recruitment event. They're constantly in the school systems holding really big educational affairs events. My base especially has schools come to base to

hold job fairs and kind of just really talk about what the Coast Guard is being such a smaller branch of service. Just really getting us out there. So for Nikki and I, we're there and we do explosive demonstrations of what the dogs look like when they find an explosive odor and kind of just educate children and parents on what explosives can look like, how they work, areas where they could be, and what these dogs do every day.

So I think being able to go out to these areas where it's not as heavily talked about, which it should be, because we live in a world where anything is possible. And educating these children to know just not only about their own, for their own safety, but about these working dogs that every day are out there keeping everybody safe and for a plethora of different reasons with the not just working

military working dogs for explosives but they have narcotics dogs and therapy dogs and I think it just speaks volumes on especially in this competition with the Hero Dog competition. It brings a light to all these dogs that not a lot of America really knows about or has even heard their stories before. So I think it's huge what you're doing out here. Thank you. Well, you know, 14 years ago we created the Hero Dog Awards for that very reason. A lot of Americans did not know what their local canine law enforcement dog did, much less what a military working dog would do. What a, they didn't even know the difference

between a therapy dog or a service dog. So we have utilized this campaign to educate millions, but not only to educate millions, I want to share some great news with you. American Humane, because of the Hero Dog Awards, has been on Capitol Hill over the past year. And it was just signed into law, the Working Dog Health and Safety Welfare Act. And that was promulgated by American Humane with members of Congress.

It was unanimously approved and signed into law right over the holidays. And what it does is it provides the same standard of care across all of the agencies that utilize our canine best friends, our working dogs to keep our community safe and healthy. So now they all have elevated levels of care and most importantly, equal levels of care across these agencies that utilize. So the dog, working dogs in Amtrak, the working dogs in the Coast Guard, they'll all get humane and better care as a result of this work. So we've been able to utilize stories such as yours and Nicky's to change federal law.

So thank you for what you do and thank you for letting American Humane change the law. Wow thank you thank you so much. That's, as you know, all like all these military dogs, working dogs, as soon as their contract is up with whatever agency that they're they've put their lives to. Unfortunately, there wasn't a program. There's a lot of fundraising partnerships that help these dogs after the fact. But they as soon as they're done with their service,

they don't have that healthcare anymore. And we provide full healthcare for all retired military working dogs. Gave me goosebumps just now. So when Nikki retires, you gotta look us back up again. We're happy to take care of you and Nikki and that too, because we believe all dogs who have served our country in line of service deserve to have healthcare benefits,

and that's where American Humane Society is proud to be your partner. And proud to be that for Nikki's lifetime, which is great. So as a potential adoptee of a retired working dog, right, it's nice to know that. And we're really very committed to that. I ask every hero dog handler who comes into Robin's Nest one simple question, and I'm asking you,

what is Nikki's superpower? Nikki's superpower is her nose. Her nose and her absolute desire to serve her country, her people, and just get up and work every day. I say her nose and that sounds hilarious, but the level of drive and lust that she has for the job that she was brought to do is incredible. She amazes me every day.

She makes my job incredibly easy, and it's really easily done and to be successful when you have a dog that is so amazing. Not just because she's mine, but I think the partner agencies that we are able to work with and everyone that we get to meet, and when they meet Nikki, I think it just exudes from her how excited she is and how much she loves her job. So I think that's her superpower. She just gets, she loves it. So her worst day will be when she retires, unfortunately, because she won't have a job anymore.

But I think, yeah. You'll have to make her have some sort of job, whatever you create in her retirement. She'll have to have something. Absolutely, absolutely. I love that. Share with everyone's in Robin's Nest, Nikki's rank. Nikki's rank, so in the Coast Guard,

or in all military facets, all of our dogs outrank the handler. So Nikki is a chief petty officer in the Coast Guard, she outranks me. She is my boss. She's the boss lady, and what she says goes every day. I think she knows it just a little bit too. I've met her and yes she does.

She can be my boss too by the way. She's wonderful and what a great representative as are you of our United States Coast Guard. Thank you both for your service and thank you for being with us today in Robin's Nest. Thank you so much Robin. And congratulations on being our Military Working Dog Hero of the year, Nikki. Yes. Congratulations. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you for tuning in to Robin's Nest. We want to hear what you think. Please make sure to review the podcast on your podcast platform. Watch for upcoming episodes that will include new and exciting discussions.

If you love animals, you'll love this season of Robin's Nest.