A Veteran Officer, His Dog + Resiliency with Chris Bingham (part 1)

What if the partner you needed most was the one everyone else overlooked? We sit down with veteran officer Chris Bingham to share the remarkable arc of his relationship with K9 Tambo—the “aloof” dog who wouldn’t bond—through seven years of elite detection work, a tough retirement, and a sudden cancer battle that forced split‑second choices and deeper courage.

Chris takes us inside the quiet craft of canine detection: how a handler learns to read breath, posture, and micro‑signals; when to guide and when to trust; and why the best teams communicate without words. We talk about the milestones that defined their run—presidential inaugurations, major sporting venues, thousands of searches—and the smaller moments that mattered more: a hesitant climb onto a hotel bed, a first nap at the foot, and the feeling of finally being seen. When a ligament tear ended Tambo’s working career, a new purpose emerged at home as he guarded Chris’s newborn son, dispelling myths about temperament and proving that service doesn’t stop with the badge.

Then everything changed. A playful chase with a backyard squirrel led to double CCL injuries and costly surgery, until Project K9 Hero stepped in to shoulder medical expenses and restore options. Honors followed—from MLB clubhouses to on‑field salutes—before a mid‑July emergency exposed a ruptured splenic mass and probable cancer. Chris walks us through the frantic vet visit, the moment Tambo looked truly afraid, and the decision to operate despite the odds. It’s a raw, human account of loyalty, resilience, and the communities that rise to help retired police dogs when they need it most.

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Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:06

All of us reach a point in time where we are depleted and need to somehow find a way to reignite the fire within. But how do we spark that flame? Welcome to Reignite Resilience, where we will venture into the heart of the human spirit. We'll discuss the art of reigniting our passion and strategies to stoke our enthusiasm. And now here are your hosts, Natalie Davis and Pamela Cass.

SPEAKER_03 0:41

Welcome back to another episode of Reignite Resilience. I'm your co-host Natalie Davis and I'm so excited to be back with all of you. And joining me, of course, is your co-host Pam Cass. Hello, Pam.

SPEAKER_02 0:51

How are you? Hello. I'm exhausted because it's Tuesday, but it feels like it's been like a five-day work week already.

SPEAKER_03 0:59

It has. It's interesting how when you're preparing for a vacation or any other time out of the office, just how much you can get done in a condensed and concentrated amount of time. And I'm feeling it. I think even just with the time change, I'm still feeling the time change. My sleep cycle's all messed up, like all of it, everything combined.

SPEAKER_02 1:18

All the things. But you know what? It is a holiday week and it's all about friends and family. And I truly am grateful for, you know, having a full schedule. And all the things that I did today from very early this morning on have all been amazing things with amazing people. So I am not complaining in any measure. I am just stating the fact that this has been the two longest days of my life. And I really didn't have a weekend off. Exactly. It's two longest days of the year so far. That's it. That's it. But I'm excited for today.

Milestone And Live Event Announcement

SPEAKER_03 1:53

I am as well. But before we dive in, I want to make sure our listeners are aware of an upcoming event that we have. Yes. We've talked about this, we've alluded to this over the years. So two things. One, we're celebrating because last week we had the launch of our 250th episode of Regnite Resilience. And you guys, it has been an amazing journey. But with that being said, no, not but. And with that being said, we are taking Rig Night Resilience Live, and we are doing Rig Night Live in Loveland, Colorado on January 22nd. Ticket sales will be available. You can find it on Instagram and our Facebook pages. And it's available on Eventbrite, but I want to make sure that I put that out there for our listeners.

SPEAKER_02 2:38

You get all day with Natalie and I, and we have a guest speaker, and it's going to be a whole day. So we hope that some of our guests that have been on our podcast and some of our listeners will make the trip to Loveland, Colorado and spend a couple of days with us because it's going to be pretty amazing.

Meet Chris And K9 Tambo

SPEAKER_03 2:55

It is going to be spectacular. So just know that you'll have some more details coming out. Anyway, I didn't want to miss the opportunity to share that with everyone. With that being said, Pam, why don't you let our listeners know who's joining us today?

SPEAKER_02 3:06

I'm excited about today's guests. I'm always excited about our guests, but I'm super excited about this one. So today we have Chris Bingham. He is a veteran law enforcement officer whose journey with his partner, Canine Tambo, has become a story of loyalty, resilience, and hope. Together they rose through the ranks, serving on the front lines of public safety and protecting thousands of presidential inaugurations and major sporting events. After years of service, Chris stood by Tambo through career-ending injuries and now through his most difficult fight yet, an aggressive cancer diagnosis. That made me choke up a little bit. Thank you so much for being here and sharing your time with us. I'm going to hand it to you because I would love for you to share your story about what brought you to where you are today, and then Tambo's story as well.

The Dog No One Could Bond With

SPEAKER_00 4:00

Yeah, and I gotta say, even here in the intro again to this day still gives me goosebumps about where we started and where we're at now and where this journey has led us, which has been pretty incredible to say the least. So a little background about me. I've been in law enforcement for 23 years. 17 of those have been spent working with canines and canine units. Tambo is my third dog. I'll get to a minute how Tambo and I kind of came together. Prior to Tambo, I was able to retire two other working dogs that have since passed. They were incredible dogs. So after my second dog passed, I took some other leadership assignments within my agency, and I didn't think there would be an opportunity to come back to canine again and have another dog. And the position of our canine commander came open, and I jumped at the chance. And it's funny, when I first got back to our unit, my boss, who was a friend of mine, she said, Look, you're gonna be running the unit. There's not gonna be a lot of time for you to work a dog. So it was friendly bantering, going back and forth, probably for several months. And I kept asking for a dog, and it's like, nope, you're not getting a dog. And then one day I came in for a meeting and did the same friendly banter again. And she's like, Okay, you want a dog, you gotta take Tambo. So I paused. And the backstory on Tambo was Tambo was known as the dog that was aloof, stubborn, couldn't bond with anybody, was very guarded, and he kind of just flew under the radar. He went through two different handlers on our unit and he was sitting in our kennel for a little bit of time. I really took a pause for a minute. I thought I was gonna go get this brand new dog and be able to pick him out. And I paused and then I said, Okay, I'm up for the challenge. And as the commander, I passed Tambrose several times, and he was probably the dog I interacted with the least. When it started, I remember going up to the kennel to get him out that day. This was kind of a defining moment. I looked at him and I saw this dog that was guarded, that was aloof, that sometimes hard to bond with. And I said, My God, I'm looking in a mirror. I was looking at myself. And at that moment, I was like, this isn't just happening. This was kind of meant to be. That's kind of how our journey started from the get-go.

unknown 6:14

Wow.

SPEAKER_02 6:15

So you had no idea that this was how it was gonna play out. And you were thinking to yourself you didn't want to get back into it and have another partner that you had to retire.

A Mirror Moment And First Trust

SPEAKER_00 6:24

Yeah. One of the hardest things, and any canine hand will tell you this is the bond that we have with these animals is second to none. We spend more time with these dogs than our spouses, than our kids, anybody else. The countless silent rides in the vehicles with them, that unspoken bond, I always call them that security blanket, right? It's when you're going through a tough time, their presence there makes you feel better. It gives you hope. And to say goodbye to my two other partners, they both had cancer as well, was two of the hardest things that I've ever had to go through in my life. And even though the journey was amazing after my second one had passed, because they both had passed away within a year of each other, I told myself and friends that I can never go through this again. I can't go through that pain. And if you ever want to hear a cry that comes from the soul, it's saying goodbye to these partners. I call them our silent heroes and the bond. It was just something that I didn't think I was going to recover from. And, you know, and a part of me died when each of them died. So I didn't know that I would be willing to go through that again. When you're away from it, you miss it. And you miss that bond, and you miss that being in it with somebody. You know, you're going to work and you know you're not going into this alone. You're in it together. The good days, the bad days, that unspoken bond. And it's like words don't have to be spoken. You know what each other's thinking. So I really missed it. And so when the opportunity came back to take Campbell, you know, like I said, I was up for the challenge, but I saw something deeper as I saw myself and him, and that really hit me hard. And that's why I think we've bonded like no other.

SPEAKER_03 8:04

Chris, tell us about that journey of bonding because here you are. You're reluctantly going in to get him from the kennel, right? Like, okay, I guess so. This is what I'm doing. To only immediately open it up and realize that you're looking at a version of yourself. And so Tambo might have been going through the same thing, like, oh great, here we go. This is me.

SPEAKER_00 8:21

Yeah. Yeah. And some other handlers that tried to take him home. And I remember one of them saying that they took him home and he went in their house and just looked at him straight in the eyes and just peed right on the wall and basically said, Forget it. This isn't working.

SPEAKER_03 8:36

You're not my partner. This is not working.

Seven Years Of Elite Detection Work

Retirement, Fatherhood, And New Purpose

Injuries, Surgeries, And A Squirrel

SPEAKER_00 8:38

He was back in the kennel the next day. So I don't think anybody really wanted to take Tambo. But like I said, I saw something that day. And, you know, our integration started slow. I didn't take him home right away. We started with small walks, and it was funny. He was very guarded. He would always keep his eyes on me and kind of watch me and observe my behavior. And I can have like a big presence on the outside, but when people get to know me, I'm a very gentle soul. And I think that he started to kind of realize that. Our first excursion together, we had to go out of town. So that was our first nights together, and we were in a hotel and he had his kennel on the ground. But I, you know, I always leave the door open so he could go in and out. And I remember being on the bed and I was on the laptop and I fell asleep. And Tambo was still keeping his distance from me. And I woke up to this scratching sound. And I woke up and he was on the bed and he was fluffing up the covers to get cozy. I woke up and we caught eyes, and he was like one of those moments where we're like startled each other, and he leapt in the air and then jumped off the bed and then ran into the kettle. And I was like, all right, buddy, you can come back in. And it's one of the things as the commander, I would never tell handlers in the beginning to let the dog sleep in the bed. But this was one of those occasions where I was like, all right, come on. But he wouldn't do it. So I ended up going back to sleep, but woke up about three hours later and he was curled up at the bottom of the bed. And, you know, for the first time I saw him at peace, and I knew that I was gaining his trust. And that was a big trust moment. And as we started to move forward and brought him home, he would always lay near me in the living room when I'd be in the recliner. And times I would get down low and sit on the floor. And then eventually he would get closer. And then another time he came up and rested his head on me. And I knew from there that we were good to go going forward. And then we really started bonding with our detection work, and we did amazing. And as we over the year, we really started to gel. And when a handler gels with their dog, it's those unspoken words where he knows what I'm thinking, I know what he's thinking, I know what he's going to do, he knows when I need to step in. And we really gelled as a team. And I never thought that this dog would have been the best detection dog that I had, but he really turned out to be one of the most amazing detection dogs. And we went on to do thousands of searches. We did a presidential inauguration. We trained at a lot of different sporting events, and we just had an amazing career. And that went on for seven years. Those seven years getting in the car together every day, coming home, our routine. He becomes part of the family. We really bonded and he came to life. I really got to see his personality. And I think that's what he needed. He needed somebody that he could trust. He needed somebody he could let his guard down with. And in some ways, you know, I did too. So I think in some ways we kind of saved each other. And then came, he was creeping up there in age. He was getting close to nine, and we were doing a search, and he was jumping in the back of a truck, and he ended up tearing a ligament in his front leg, which was pretty significant. Took him to the orthopedic, and they were like, look, we can avoid surgery, but his recovery, he's probably not going to be the same working dog anymore. And he was getting close to retirement. I didn't want to put him through anymore, so I was able to get him retired to me. And as a handler, that's always one of the other best moments in your life when you know that dog finally belongs to you. But the next part was figuring out how he's going to adapt to retirement. For any handler, when you have a dog that's come to work with you for seven years like he did, retirement can be tough. But it was good timing because it was the timing of the birth of my first son, Mackie. And Tambo's a dog that needs a job to do. And the rumors before is that he wasn't good with kids. That couldn't have been further from the truth. My son came home, and I think Tambo saw him as an extension of me. And his new job every day was to protect my son and to lay by his crib. And when Mackie would cry, Tambo would bark and alert us and let us know that Mackie needed attention. And that was his job, and he loved it. But the hard part was is that every morning I tried to leave for work, Tambo still tried to come to work with me. Yeah. That hasn't changed. And I'll say now, even since he's been retired since 2022, he still tries to come to work with me till this day. That part of these dogs never leaves him. And every day I'm like, sorry, buddy, it's not happening today. And you see that look of disappointment. But then he was able to adapt and then go back to being with my son, and he really carved out a niche. Then came his second injury. So there's a squirrel, and I've named him George. This kind of a modern-day Tom and Jerry here. So this squirrel would come up to the house and love to torment Tambo, and Tambo loved to chase this squirrel through the yard. And they would have this little bantering all the time, and that was part of Tambo's fun. And one day, Tambo was coming out back, and George popped up. And instead of Tambo going down the stairs, he leapt off the top stairs, and I could see his back legs kind of buckle. I knew something was wrong, and he came back limping pretty significantly. You know, after getting him looked at at the orthopedic, he not only had one CCL tear, he had two. That's equivalent to an ACL tear in humans. So he had a double tear. So he went from being vibrant and moving well to now another injury. And, you know, I took him in and they had said, look, we have to at least do one of the surgeries, and that's going to cost about$8,000. So that's when Project Canine Hero came into my life. I had met the founder, Jason Johnson of Project Canine Hero. And for those that don't know what Project Canine Hero is, they're a national nonprofit that provides medical care to retired police and military working dogs that have significant injuries that are in dire need of care. I had met Jason a few years ago at a conference and we became friends. And I called Jason up. He had met Tambo before and he had helped another dog on our unit that had leukemia. And he got Tambo right into the program and they immediately funded his surgery. So right then and there, they took all the finances out of having to worry about can I afford this surgery? And one of the biggest things I've always said is I don't think any handler should ever have to make a decision on their dog based on finances. So that was huge.

SPEAKER_02 15:05

Oh my gosh. Absolutely amazing. And so how is Tambo doing now after the surgery? Is he mobile?

Project K9 Hero Steps In

SPEAKER_00 15:13

Yeah. They did the first leg and they said if that's stable enough, they can avoid surgery on the second. So, like the champ that he was, within a couple months, he had made a full recovery and he was doing amazing again. And I'm a person that likes to get back, and Tambo still wanted to get out and do things. So he kind of became an ambassador for Project Canine Hero. So what we did is we went to a lot of events for fallen police officers, for charity events. We did the Seattle Mariners, we did the Clemson Tigers, and then we got honored with Project Canine Hero by the Baltimore Orioles, which is my childhood team. So I got to take Tambo down and meet a bunch of the players in the clubhouse, and he got to sit up in the club seats during the game, and we got to drape the American flag over in the fourth inning, which was an amazing experience. And we were doing all kinds of events for Project Canine Hero. And I remember in May, the Philadelphia Phillies honored Tambo on his 11th birthday for their salute to service. And I got to take my son to the game. And I remember standing on the field with Tambo, and they had him on the Jumbotron there, and everybody was singing happy birthday to him. And it was an amazing moment. And I said, it doesn't get any better than this to have my son there and witness that and to have Tambo honored on their salute to service game. I was like, things are great. And little did I know that our lives would change significantly come in July.

SPEAKER_03 17:38

Wow. In that one month time frame or month and a half, you have a big shift. But before we go there, Chris, like I am curious, just with Tambo's experience when he was working with you, you all had some amazing tours or assignments that you had in terms of inaugural and these games. I mean, these are typically like high security, high energy, a ton of activity. Was that his experience when he was a canine service dog prior to your partnership?

Collapse At Home And Emergency

SPEAKER_00 18:06

So he was still kind of in training and he got deployed a little bit, but the first handler just had issues bonding with him and he was aloof with them. And then the second handler had him for a little bit. They weren't bonding. He ended up leaving. You know, he still got great care 24-7, but he was unassigned at the time. That's when, you know, I kind of came into play and we kind of took it to that next level and did all these searches together. And he was an amazing, amazing detection dog, you know, cool as a cucumber in any situation. And I knew how to read him. I knew when to step in and to give him direction, and I also knew when to back off. And when you get to that moment as a handler with your dog, and then I would tell the handlers on the team all the time to be in that relationship, that unspoken bond and be able to communicate. That's something that some people are never going to get to experience. You know, it still gives me chills to think about it with all my dogs and being able to have that with them is truly amazing.

SPEAKER_03 19:04

I love that. Chris, you talk about it. I think that there are some individuals that serve that don't have that type of bond and connection with their human partners, much less their canine partners. Yes. Yeah, so that's amazing. That's a huge win. Talk to us about that shift, right? So there you are in May, and you think this is amazing. What an experience, what an opportunity. Things shifted again in that moment or shortly after.

Spleen Rupture, Cancer Fears, Decision Point

A Calm Voice In The Storm

Surgery, Survival, And Uncertain Nights

Closing Gratitude And Next Steps

SPEAKER_00 19:29

Yeah. It was a normal morning, mid-July, 5 a.m. I got up for work that morning. I went down. He was in place at 4 59 waiting for his breakfast. So he's already he knows the drills. He was enthusiastic. He got his breakfast. He tried leaving for work with me like he had for the last four or five years. And I went to work that day, and everything I thought was normal. And it was kind of funny. And here's another moment where I feel like something higher was talking to me. That day, I wasn't feeling great at work for whatever reason. I felt anxious. I was having some palpitations at work, and I don't get those usually. I just didn't feel right. I ended up leaving work about two and a half hours early. You know, I came home, I was gonna just lay down and I opened the door, and Tambo usually greets me right at the front door, and that day it was different. I didn't see him. That's weird. So I walked quickly into the dining room area and I found him. He was conscious, but he was laying there, and I saw he had thrown up. He was very groggy. So as a handler, the first thing I did is I checked his gums. His gums were very pale, which was indicative of blood loss. And then I got him up on his feet and he was very unstable. So I didn't know what was wrong with him at that point, but I knew it was an emergency, and you know, I had to get him to the vet. So the emergency vet's about 25 minutes from my house. So I got him loaded into the car. By the time we got there, he was having trouble walking, and his stomach was distended, which I could tell there was some internal bleeding going on. They took him right back, and I remember vividly them coming out and said they did an ultrasound and said he had a mass rupture on his spleen, and he's starting to bleed out. We're not sure what's going on yet, but we think this is cancer. But before we get to that, he's in an emergency situation right now, so we got to go in, give him a blood transfusion, and we're gonna have to remove the spleen. At that point, she said, Look, I need to talk finances with you before this starts. This emergency surgery, they quoted me at between seven and ten thousand dollars. And I remember calling Jason up from Project Kine here, and I've talked about this in other interviews. I call him Jay. I was like, Jay, this is what's going on. And he just stopped me, said, Chris, we got your in Tambo's back 100%, whatever you need. Don't worry about the finances. And that right there, to take that out alone, because I don't know how many people might have been in that situation, some families that are going through something that don't have that money to save their dog. And I think the emergency vet at the time was almost prepared for me to say, look, I don't have it. And I think I kind of took him aback when I said, you know, money's not an object, and let's get the surgery going. So they got him prepped. What hit me hard is they had told me that if I had gotten home probably an hour or two later, like my normal time, he would have bled out and died. I don't know what was telling me to leave work early that day, but something much bigger was telling me to leave, and I think that was our bond talking to me. So they got him prepped and they said, look, he's in the back, he's very panicked. Tambo's a very stoic dog. He doesn't normally get panicked. And I've also talked about this in other interviews about this bonding moment that we had. And I remember being very emotional going back there because they said it's a 50-50 chance if he makes it through this surgery. But we got to get him back quick because we got to do this blood transfusion. Maybe you can come back and calm him down, and you need to potentially say your goodbye to him. And I remember walking in the back and I hadn't said anything yet. His back was turned to me, but I remember walking in and he felt my energy. He instantly swiveled around and our eyes locked. I still get emotional talking about this, but our eyes locked across the room. And for the first time in my life, I saw panic in his eyes. I saw fear. And if you know Tambo, he's been through these traumatic injuries, through working careers, all these calls, and he's never shown me that. And for the first time in his life, he was scared. I was trying to keep my emotions in check, and then something hit me. For seven years, he had been my security blanket. He had been there for me when I had gone through the trials and tribulations of life and been the steady force for me that always made me feel better, made me feel safe, though those moments, that energy together. And I said to myself, this is my time to be here for him. So I went up to him, we locked eyes, and I said, Dad's here. I said, You're gonna be okay, you're gonna be fine. And instantly I could see the calm come over him. And I knew at that moment that he was gonna be okay. And they said, Thank you for getting him calmed down. And they took him back and they said, Look, we're gonna call you in like an hour to let you know how he did. And I had to leave for a little bit. So I remember them calling me an hour later and they said, Look, we got him opened up. We can remove the spleen, but the spleen is absolutely covered in masses. And we're pretty sure it's cancerous. And they said it's one of the worst spleens they've seen with masses. And they said, from what we can feel, we feel like there's masses on the liver as well. And they said to me, What do you want to do? And I feel again at that time, not blaming the vets whatsoever, but they may have been used to people saying, I don't want to put them through this potentially of what lies ahead. But knowing the fighter that Tambo is and the look that he gave me, he was telling me, Dad, it's not my time. I'm not ready to go. And I knew what I had to do, and I said, I want to proceed with the surgery. And they said, just understand that he may not make it through this. And I said, I understand. But I said, I know my dog and I want to proceed. So they proceeded. They called me back about another hour later, and they said they got the spleen removed, they did the blood transfusion, and he's in recovery, which was a great sign. He made it through the surgery. Now the next battle, which is making it through the next couple of nights, which there's always risk of infection and complications and everything.

SPEAKER_01 25:20

So thank you for joining us today on the Reignite Resilience Podcast. We hope you had some aha moments and learned a few new real life ideas to fuel the flames of passion. Please subscribe on your favorite streaming platform, like or download your favorite episodes, and of course, share with your friends and family. We look forward to seeing you again next time on Reignite Resilience.