Classes are offered in the following disciplines:
Human Remains Detection
In 1992 I learned how to handle my first “Body Dog” as it was referred to then under the tutelage of Mr. Andy Rebmann Trooper First Class, Connecticut State Police (Ret.). Andy now owns and operates K-9 Specialty Search Associates with Marcia Koenig in Seattle, Washington. As a young trooper, I had a deep desire to become a law enforcement canine handler in order to help my fellow human beings. As I later found out cadaver search would become the toughest type of search work I would ever do with my dogs.
Disaster Live Person Search
With hard work and dedication, I learned to channel my energy by focusing on what is most important in this business, “READING YOUR DOG”. The importance of reading your dogs subtle body language and how to put that skill to work cannot be under estimated or over stated. Using dogs to look for bodies in rubble is a demanding task. Over the years, I have refined my skills even further has a handler and teacher with my own experiences participating in disaster searches around the north east and southern parts of the country.
Disaster Cadaver Search
In the 31 years that I have been handling and training search and rescue dogs I have long since come to believe that handling a well-trained canine to detect human remains is a true art as much as it is a science. It is no different when searching in a disaster type scenario as one handler demonstrates in this fire scene depicted to your right. I found that implementing sound, proven, grass-roots training methods to my canine program, made a huge difference in our overall performance on a search as well as boosting my confidence in my dogs abilities. It is these same training methods that aid me in my work when training other teams today.
Trailing
Training a dog to trail or follow the path of human scent is an extremely rewarding and fun experience. I have had more fun teaching a canine team to trail than probably any other scent discipline. Traditionally, if there is an accurate PLS, the trailing dog is an excellent tool to start the search with. Even if the canine team is only provided with a general area of where the missing person was last seen, by casting your dog in that area, you have a chance to get a direction of travel. If a scent article is provided, it may increase your chances of obtaining an accurate trail by scent discrimination. I will typically customize a trailing class based on the skill level of the canine team to give my students the best opportunity to learn how to become a reliable trailing resource with their dogs.
Wilderness Search
Wilderness search is usually the first scent discipline I teach when I am training a young dog for the first time. Because I have had to cross train many of my search dogs, I find that this type of search is learned quickly by the dog and once completed, provides him/her with a solid foundation on searching for live human scent. Wilderness search is one of the fastest ways to cover a large area for a missing person, especially when there is no (PLS) or place last seen. This type of search discipline can be conducted with or without a scent article depending on how the dog is trained.
Water Search
Water search is a sent disciplines that most people find quite fasinating. During my career I had the opportunity to work on many water search cases with my dogs and in a wide variety of situations to include rivers, lakes and the Alantic Ocean. Water search can be a difficult and intimidating search discipline for a handler to conduct but it is also a tremendous resource to divers when the need arises to search for an area where a body may be. I go to great lengths to teach my students how to read their dogs while working off a water craft as well as along shorelines. There are several key elements to being successful in water search and as a student in my class, you will learn what they are and how to apply them to your dog and to your search.
Article Search
This scent disipline is extremely useful in helping to locate missing persons. A dog trained to detect articles containing live human scent help reduce the amount of time spent searching for missing persons. Having a dog with the capability to reliably indicate on an article left behind by a missing person gives a last known point (LKP), which is critical in a missing person search.
Agility Training
Agility training is a great way to build your dog’s confidence and teach them to negotiate on unstable or unsteady surfaces. This type of training creates a good foundation for your dog and will assist them in all aspects of search work.