A former greyhound racing venue in Tijuana is training volunteer dog teams to search for earthquake survivors. Parque Canódromo, located at the Hipódromo behind Casino Caliente, has launched a search-and-rescue certification program led by Ricardo Forastieri, the park’s director and a veteran of Mexico’s two deadliest modern earthquakes. A second volunteer cohort will open soon, and Forastieri is negotiating a partnership with the Mexican Red Cross to extend certifications nationally.
Tijuana Dog Park Built on Former Greyhound Track
Parque Canódromo occupies the grounds of Tijuana’s old greyhound racing track, repurposing a space once associated with animal exploitation into one centered on canine welfare. The park offers obedience classes, socialization sessions, dog yoga, physical training, and races on the original track. A competition pool for dock diving, a discipline with international following, is set to open soon.
The park also runs a “Good Citizen Dog” program. Owners and their dogs complete a training course together, then receive a certificate recognizing responsible behavior in public spaces. Forastieri frames the park’s philosophy around letting dogs behave naturally.
“Wellbeing means letting a dog be a dog,” Forastieri said. He added that many behavioral problems, including fear, anxiety, and aggression, stem from owners who deny their pets species-appropriate activity and stimulation. “This new society wants to turn them into something they’re not, and the poor things are suffering,” he said.
Forastieri Responded to 1985 and 2017 Mexico City Earthquakes
The rescue training program draws on Forastieri’s direct experience. He participated in relief operations after the September 19, 1985, earthquake in Mexico City, which killed an estimated 10,000 people and collapsed more than 400 buildings. He returned to help again on the same calendar date in 2017, when a magnitude 7.1 quake struck central Mexico and killed 370 people. Both disasters exposed gaps in urban search-and-rescue capacity across the country.
Trained search dogs can locate buried survivors far faster than human teams working with hand tools alone. In the 2017 quake, canine teams from Mexico, Japan, and other countries were credited with locating multiple survivors in collapsed structures in Mexico City’s Roma and Condesa neighborhoods. The speed advantage matters because survival rates in building collapses drop sharply after the first 72 hours.
Forastieri’s program at Parque Canódromo trains “binomios,” the paired unit of handler and dog that operates as a single search team. The first cohort of volunteers is already training. Because of high demand, a second cohort will begin enrollment soon. The park aims to become a certified testing site for both national and international rescue dog credentials.
Tijuana Sits on Active Fault Lines
The program carries practical weight in a city with real seismic exposure. Tijuana lies within the seismically active boundary zone between the Pacific and North American tectonic plates. The Rose Canyon Fault system extends from San Diego into northern Baja California. The region has experienced multiple significant earthquakes, including the 2010 magnitude 7.2 El Mayor-Cucapah quake centered about 60 kilometers south of Mexicali, which was felt strongly in Tijuana and across the border in San Diego County.
Tijuana’s steep hillside colonias, many built with informal construction methods, are particularly vulnerable to structural collapse in a major quake. The city’s civil protection resources are limited relative to its population of roughly 2 million. Volunteer search-and-rescue capacity could fill a critical gap in the first hours after a disaster, before federal or international help arrives.
“We live in a zone where an earthquake is very possible,” Forastieri said. “If we have a dog that knows how to mark a person’s location, it can make a huge difference in time and save lives.”
Any Dog Can Qualify With Proper Vaccination
The rescue training program accepts dogs of any breed, including mixed breeds, as long as they meet physical fitness requirements for search work. Dogs must be at least four months old and fully vaccinated to enter the park for any activity.
Forastieri invited established rescue groups and individual volunteers to join the program. Interested dog owners can call (562) 518-3938 for information about memberships and enrollment.
Parque Canódromo is open Wednesday through Saturday from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. and Sundays from 7 a.m. to 2 p.m. The park is closed Monday and Tuesday for maintenance. The Red Cross partnership, if finalized, would allow the park to issue certifications recognized across Mexico. This story was first reported by La Jornada Baja California.