Canine Program Instructors
Jeff Finlay
K9 search specialist and K9 director and co-chair for K9 Sar teams in Ohio
Reciently moved to Pa - becoming involved with Nesar, the Cadaver Recovery Task force and PA-TF1
Imprinting in hunt drive (1hr lecture and hands on)
Participants will learn an alternative method for imprinting Human Scent Detection, and will discuss the advantages of the hunt drive imprinting process vs the traditionally accepted runaway technique.
Scent Specific Trailing –Improving on-line communication with our K9 partners
2 day - brief lecture with intense two day workshop (beginner and Intermediate-Advanced).
Participants will learn techniques to improve their trailing/handling skills and their abilities to read and interpret their k9 partner's body language on trail.
Topics discussed will include:
- Line handling techniques
- Reading K9 body language
- Laying practice trails
- Advanced class include urban trails
Evaluating the K9’s for SAR work (1-2 hours lecture and hands on workshop)
Participants will learn through discussion and hands on exercises how to evaluate K9’s for suitability in SAR taking into consideration social, prey, hunt, and defense drives and soundness of nerves.
K9 Aggression Management (2hour lecture and 2 hour hands on group interaction field work)
Participants will learn through PowerPoint lecture and hands on group interactive exercises the factors to consider in diagnosing and management of K9 as well as how to recognize the various types of K9 aggression and methods utilized to rehabilitate aggressive k9’s.
Handlers with K9 aggression issues are encouraged to participate.
Understanding K9 Behaviors, Drives and Learning (3 hour PowerPoint lecture and hands on – Bring your dogs and a desire to learn!)
Participants will gain a stronger understanding of their k9’s behavior, body language, and other theories to enhance their working relationships with their k9 partners.
Recovery Dog Network
2 1/2 day Cadaver Dog Training
Limited to 28 handlers with dogs
The Recovery Dog Network will be offering a 2 1/2 day intensive cadaver dog training for dogs and handlers at all levels of training, from absolute beginners to advanced on line teams. A student to faculty ration of no more than 4 to 1 will be maintained in order to provide adequate learning opportunity for all involved.
With the growing demand for Cadaver Dogs, and their utilization by law enforcement, it is critical that dogs be experienced in all areas of cadaver training. Each Training Station will be adjusted to accommodate the level of training of the students rotating through the station. Training stations will include:
- Wilderness Above Ground
- High (Elevated) Hides
- Buried/ Clandestine Grave Detection
- Building Search
- Vehicle Search
- Scattered Skeletal Remains
- Forensic (Blood Evidence) Searches
An additional Scent Imprinting Station will be provided to enable handlers and dogs of all levels to expose their canines to a wide assortment of scent sources and presentations, including burned, sealed in concrete, etc...
Lecture will be intermixed with hands on training at each station, with an emphasis placed on hands on training.
No Pseudo Scents will be used in this training.
The Cadaver Dog Training will culminate with a Murder Mystery/ Mock Crime Scene on Sunday morning, in which handlers will be divided into teams, given clues, and given an opportunity to search for potential crime scene evidence.
Karen Dashfield
DVM, Veterinarian NJTF-1, K-9 Handler
Beginning and Intermediate/Advanced K9 first aid
A two night Power Point presentation with hands on demonstration of the techniques to provide the K-9 handler with basic knowledge of Canine First Aid for use in the field, at base camp or during any canine medical emergency.
A FEW OF THE TOPICS COVERED:
- Field Medical Pack
- Types of Wounds
- Eye Injuries
- Sprains and Strains
- Fractures and Dislocations
- Heat and Cold related Emergencies
- Bloat
- Stings and Bites
- Shock
- Canine CPR
- Evacuation procedures
Jody Chiquoine
RN, MSN, FNP, Certified canine physical rehabilitation therapist
Injury Prevention: Conditioning the Working Dog
Learning objectives for participants:
- Demonstrate detailed understanding of working dog injuries - How they occur and how they can be prevented.
- Demonstrate an understanding of conditioning exercises including targeted strength exercises, rate of endurance exercises and appropriate warm ups and cool down exercises.
- Demonstration of rehabilitation techniques of the working dog to bring them to full performance – including water therapy
Heather Houlahan
Canine director – Allegheny Mountain Rescue Group, ASRC training officer
SAR Navigational Derby
A skill-building and practice opportunity for map and compass navigation and GPS use; an opportunity for friendly competition. A convenient venue for teaching teammates.
Self paced hands on field exercises.
Equipment needed:
Orienteering compass or Global Positioning handheld unit (high and low tech participants will compete in different classes)
Recommended:
UTM grid reader
Reading Highly recommended:
Kjellstrom, Bjorn, Be Expert with Map and Compass, ISBN # 0-02-029265-1
Seidman, David, The Essential Wilderness Navigator, ISBN# 0-07-056323-3
The SAR Dog Partnership: Reward as a Relationship
Participants will learn to identify the informal and motivational elements of a SAR dog’s reward for work and the working completion. They will evaluate their own dogs and begin to devise a reward system that satisfies each animal's need for information and gratification without triggering undesirable drives and behaviors. They will appreciate the use of the reward for work completed as a means for strengthening the working relationship and cross species communication.
Obedience workshop for SAR dogs
Triage of handlers/experienced trainers and our K9’s to assist with individual and specific K9 obedience issues.
Kenneth Chiacchia
Allegheny Mountain Rescue group K9 handler and field team leader, K9 airscent specialist
The movement of Scent: applying the lessons of weather science to air scent strategy
For both air scenting and trailing SAR dog handlers, the movement of scent when it leaves a search subject’s body is a matter of fundamental importance for making expeditious “finds”. Many experienced handlers have a good working understanding of how weather and wind movements affect scent movement; but beginners often find the mass of information to be learned confusing, and even the most experienced can profit from the many lessons learned by researches studying the movement of airborne pollutants.
In this talk the presenter – an active SAR dog handler and scientific writer with a PhD in biochemistry – reviews the meteorological research and gives us practical lessons for putting our dogs in the "right place" to find scent.
Recommended reading:
Probability of Detection for Search Dogs or How Long is Your Shadow by Hatch Graham members.impulse.net/~mlynch/pod_k9.html
In search of human scent www.amrg.info/in_search_of_scent.htm
Applying science to SAR: Assessing air scent dog performance (Lecture followed by a round table discussion)
Verifying air scent dog performance to search managers and responsible authorities will be the topic round table discussion
Dogs for the sane or how to stop worrying and love dog handlers
For many dog handlers, working with dog teams has been a mystery and frustration. Partly this happens because of inconsistent operational performance in the SAR dog community; but part also comes from a lack of knowledge preventing command and field personnel from developing realistic expectations as to what the resource can provide.
Our presenter tries to give non-dog-handlers a primer on how air scent and trailing SAR dogs work, what is known about there performance abilities, and what is not known. Also some common sense pointers are given to how a non-expert can assess dog teams’ professionalism and training level.
Penny Sullivan
ARDA NJ (founder), NJ-TF1
Lessons from the Past (Lecture 1 hour)
An overview of the past 30 years in canine SAR and lessons the dogs have taught us along the way.
Lisa Murphy
VMD, VMAT, DABT (board certified toxicologists)
Toxicological risks and treatment strategies for search and rescue dogs responding to urban disaster sites
The participant will be expected to learn:
- Awareness of common substances that may be found at an urban disaster site
- Potential routes of exposure for dogs working at a site
- Possible acute and long term health effects
- Basic treatments and diagnostic recommendations
- Recommendations to minimize potential risks
- Amanda Downend, BA, Study Director
project: MEDICAL SURVEILLANCE OF DOGS DEPLOYED TO THE WORLD TRADE CENTER AND THE PENTAGON
When the World Trade Center and sections of the Pentagon came crashing down Sept. 11, the rubble left for rescuers was laden with asbestos, diesel fuel, PCBs and countless other toxins. Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania have a three-year study of the search-and-rescue mission's effects on rescue dogs and their handlers.
This study involves more than 200 search dogs and handlers from across the U.S. that were part of trained rescue teams that arrived as part of the nationwide outpouring of support.
Comprised of veterinary researchers and psychologists, the team focused on the physical and psychological toll, possibly sounding an early alert on ailments to watch for among those who have toiled to clear the wreckage.
Listen first hand to what the researchers found and what these studies have taught us.
William Dotson
Search Team Manager for VA TF2, K9 trainer, K9 specialist consultant
Disaster Camp Workshop
5 Basic skills of a disaster search dog will be covered
- obedience
- agility
- directionals
- indication
- search.
There will be emphasis on the indication and search using building on site.
Correcting Common SAR Dog training problems – class and field work
Triage of handlers/experienced trainers and our K9’s to assist with individual and specific K9 training issues.
Selecting and Understanding working dogs –how to select a working dog and why
Dee Wild
Nasar SAR Dog section chair, DMORT Region Vl Team, LaSAR co-founder
Lisa Higgins
Nasar Canine SarTech coordinator, DMORT Region Vl Team, LaSAR founder
K9 Water Training
2 day intensified workshop includes 5 sessions of lectures and field work. No psudoscent used with this course.
Sue Fireman
obedience trainer for 20 years, has taught classes in the US and Canada, newspaper columnist for k9 obedience problems.
Training a thinking dog – problem solving
- Think and plan before you train
- Creating good habits at early training
- Realize that mistakes are part of learning
Obedience problem solving
Triage of handlers/ experienced trainers and our K9’s to assist with individual and specific K9 training issues
Canine Evaluators
Allen Rossi
Training director Mid-atlantic D.O.G.S ., K9 search Specialist with FEMA and Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance, Nasar K9 SAR Tech III, II Certifier
K9 SAR TECH III Certification test
Prerequisites:
- NASAR SARTECH II
- Canine Good Citizen or equivalent
Classroom Testing
- Take and pass Canine SARTECH III written test
- Pass the pack Station by possessing all the items in the basic canine pack list- Full pack to be worn by candidate during the field test
Field Testing
- Area Testing: find a single stationary subject located within an area of 40 – 60 acres within 1 1/2 hours including breaks
- Trailing: Correctly follow an aged trail of between 1/4 and 1/2 miles in length, within l hour including breaks
Amir Findling
Coordinator/ K9 Handler Western New York Search Dogs. Inc.
K9 Standards committee, NYS Federation of Search and Rescue
NYS Federation of SAR Teams K9 Standards -Certification testing
Trail problems
- 20 acres walking subject
- 30 foot off trail: 1/2 -3/4 mile
- Note: 30, 40 and 160 acre testing to be done off of the Tri-State schedule due to time restrictions.
All testing requests will be scheduled by the Federation Evaluators
Video analysis of k9 performance
Christine Buff
Coordinator/K9 Handler Cayuga County Highland SAR, Inc.
Chair K9 Standards Committee - NYS Federation of Search and Rescue
NYS Federation of SAR Teams K9 Standards -Certification testing
Trail problems
- 20 acres walking subject
- 30 foot off trail: 1/2 -3/4 mile
- Note: 30, 40 and 160 acre testing to be done off of the Tri-State schedule due to time restrictions.
All testing requests will be scheduled by the Federation Evaluators
Brian Buff
Senior K9 Trainer Cayuga County Highland SAR, Inc.
NYS Federation of SAR Teams K9 Standards -Certification testing
Trail problems
- 20 acres walking subject
- 30 foot off trail: 1/2 -3/4 mile
- Note: 30, 40 and 160 acre testing to be done off of the Tri-State schedule due to time restrictions.
All testing requests will be scheduled by the Federation Evaluators
Bill Bokowski
K9 obedience instructor
Distraction training: "So you think your dog knows the word sit?"
2 hour class training on exercises to strengthen a dog’s ability to follow direction and complete tasks, despite distractions and other more interesting diversions of life.
Canine Good Citizen
prerequisite to Nasar's K9 SAR TECH III testing
