EXCLUSIVE: There are good dogs. There are very good dogs. And then there’s Zzaslow.
The black Labrador, who was born in June 2005 at Lackland Air Force Base in Texas, became the most decorated bomb-sniffing dog in U.S. Army history, saving countless American soldiers from concealed bombs and landmines.
The canine’s heroic story, and his poignant connection to 9/11, is told in the new documentary Zzaslow K-427, directed by Robert Ham and produced by Adam Zaslow and Robert Ham. It screens Friday and Saturday at the Cleveland International Film Festival. We have your first look at the film in the trailer below.
Zzaslow was born into the TSA Puppy Program, “a post-9/11 initiative that bred and raised explosive-detection dogs in honor of victims of the September 11 attacks,” according to press materials for the film. He was named for World Trade Center victim Ira Zaslow, the only Lehman Brothers employee who did not escape the WTC on 9/11, “his double ‘Z’ designation marking his place in the program’s alphabetical memorial lineage.”
The lab was raised during his first year by a TSA volunteer foster family in Austin, Texas. With them, “he underwent structured behavioral development and early scent work designed to prepare him for national service.”
The work paid off – at 1 year old, Zzaslow was transferred to the Department of Defense and selected for the Mine Detection Dog (MDD) course. In June 2007, he graduated alongside the man who would become his lifelong handler, SPC Juan Colón-Estrada. “Together they began a decade of service that would place them on the front lines of some of the most dangerous terrain in the world.”
Zzaslow specialized in locating buried landmines, IEDs, mortar rounds, grenades, and unexploded ordnance. “His work required extreme precision: upon detecting explosive odor, he would perform a passive indication, freezing in place, allowing engineers to safely mark and neutralize the threat. Over three deployments to Afghanistan, Zzaslow cleared more than 25,000 square meters of hazardous terrain during quality assurance and route clearance missions. He created safe lanes for troop movement and conducted casualty-extraction searches, including clearing a two-meter-wide path after a damaged C-17 aircraft landed in an uncleared area, enabling all passengers to disembark safely.”
Zzaslow served for 10 years, becoming renowned for his “calm nose” and being “steady, methodical, unwavering under pressure. His accuracy and discipline protected American and allied soldiers daily. By the time of his retirement in November 2014, he was recognized as the longest-tenured and most decorated mine-detection dog of the post-9/11 era.”
Writer-producer Adam Zaslow is the son of Lehman Brothers employee Ira Zaslow. His involvement in the documentary came about he learned a bomb-sniffing dog had been named in honor of his late father. He sold his childhood basketball card collection to help fund the project.
“Funding the film independently was challenging. More difficult was confronting my own grief surrounding 9/11. Visiting the 9/11 Museum for the first time, with Juan [Zzalow’s trainer], was emotional, but also healing,” Zaslow says. “My father’s story ended with ‘victim of 9/11.’ Learning that the TSA named puppies after victims, and that one carried my father’s name, gave his legacy new meaning.”
Director Robert Ham enlisted in the U.S. military after 9/11. “I… trained and was ultimately deployed to Afghanistan as a Combat Videographer and Public Affairs Sergeant with the 4th Brigade, 25th Infantry Division (Airborne),” he notes. “I carried a camera in one hand and a rifle in the other.”
“Adam Zaslow reached out with this story that echoed both tragedy and purpose, and somewhere in the world there was a mine-detection dog who carried his family name: Zzaslow K-427,” Ham explains. “His message cut straight into questions I’d carried for years about service, loss, legacy, and the ways 9/11 reshaped the world for an entire generation. We decided to partner and tell this intimate story.”
Ham continues, “To shape the film, I entered Adam’s world as a son carrying the shape of loss; I entered Juan’s world as a handler who entrusted his life to a dog; and, finally, I entered Zzaslow’s world, searching out weapons with a life-saving nose, where the bond between man and animal revealed itself as unbreakable and where Ira’s legacy continues to live on.”
Suzanne Johnson served as Zzaslow’s foster parent for the first year of his life.
“ZZaslow K-427 isn’t just a documentary,” Johnson says. “It’s a testament to a profound human connection. The story holds deep personal meaning for everyone who had the honor of being a part of his life. Each individual who crossed paths with him poured their heart and spirit into nurturing the seeds of greatness within him, helping Zzaslow blossom into the truly exceptional soldier he was destined to become. It’s a shared journey of dedication, love, and the enduring power of connection that shaped a remarkable life.”
Release plans for the documentary are pending. Watch the trailer for Zzaslow K-457 here:
English (US) ·