Taiwan Dog Names

Tie-Hsiung actually means iron hero in Mandarin, and this pooch definitely lives up to his name. The four-year-old Golden Labrador Retriever is a 2016 rookie rescue dog at the Taichung Fire Bureau in Taiwan and recently (2018) he helped locate two victims of the Hualien earthquake who had been trapped for more than 15 hours. Believe it or not, this was Tie-Hsiung's first rescue, and he ran right into the fallen debris to sniff out the survivors who were trapped in the hotel. 

Tie-Hsiung was able to locate Chou Chih-Hsuan and Liang Shu-Wei under the reception in the Marshal Hotel after being trapped by debris. Although Chou, unfortunately, did not survive, Liang was found alive and was taken to a hospital and was later released. But, Tie-Hsiung was injured in the rescue, with cuts and abrasions on his paw and an infection in his ear. He was also treated and released with a bandaged paw and some medications. 

The brave Tie-Hsiung and his partner, Tui-Tui, a black Labrador Retriever, were both praised by the Mayor of Taichung, Lin Chia-lung and given special mention, dubbing them the pride of Taichung. In the 6.4 magnitude earthquake that hit Taichung on February 6, 2018, ten people were killed, and many more were injured. Tie-Hsiung and his partner braved the aftershocks and dangerous conditions with sharp nails and glass on the ground to locate many of the victims. 

If it weren’t for their liveliness, these two heroes would not have been able to save anyone, according to the Taichung Fire Bureau, because they were slated to be drug-sniffing dogs, but they didn’t last because the training center said they were too lively. Although drug dogs are not supposed to be perky pets, the search and rescue job requires some kind of perkiness and playfulness, so they have a way to reward them for their work. Luckily for the victims of the Hualien earthquake, these pups were too playful to be drug detection dogs.     

The fact that it was Tie-Hsiung's first rescue mission makes the hero even more incredible because he was not scared at all. Even though they trained in all kinds of situations, they had never been in a real live danger area, and his trainer was afraid that the Labrador would be too scared to go into the rubble. But he was braver than anyone, even the humans, running in without even a thought for his own safety.