Wally is short for “Walrus.” He hails from a line of dogs named after the Beatles and their hits. Tiddle and Beers spoke to AARP in a phone interview and later in a Zoom video chat, which

also drew the dogs. During the chat, Wally sunbathed and enjoyed being petted and stroked by Beers. Gio was splayed on a rear deck, inhaling the scents of summer with his turbocharged nose.

Neither barked once during the 15-minute chat. GOOD DOGS The dogs trained at the nonprofit Assistance Dogs of the West (ADW) in Santa Fe, New Mexico, which has prepared more than 500 service

dogs since its creation in 1995. Founder Jill Felice, 59, its senior vice president for programming, says she prefers to start training puppies even when they are days old, but no later

have been the most popular breed of dogs in the U.S. since 1991, based on American Kennel Club registrations. Felice favors them for her program because of their emotional and cognitive

intelligence, sociability, loyalty and willingness to be trained. “They're truly interested in humans and the jobs that we do,” she observes, even if it's just emptying a

dishwasher. Crisis-response dogs need a calm, resilient, flexible and adaptable temperament. They can't freak out at loud noises such as emergency sirens. Felice fondly remembers a day

she spent training with Gio before he left for the FBI. It began with a morning hike in New Mexico, and about 12 hours later they hit New York City to acclimate him to travel. "He was

just like, ‘Whatever,’ and he didn't care if we were on a plane, a taxi or a train, or on foot on the trails,” says Felice, who reports a surge in demand for crisis-response and

courthouse dogs. Even the FBI is considering bringing on more of these dogs, Tiddle says.