South Carolina Search and Rescue Dog Association Hosts Nationally Known Instructors, 28 Dog Teams For Advanced Search Workshop
South Carolina Search & Rescue Dog Association Hosts Nationally Known Instructors and 28 Teams For Advanced Search Dog Training Workshop
April 17, 2009 The South Carolina Search & Rescue Dog
Association is hosting a week-long Advanced Search Dog
training workshop in Spartanburg, April 27 through May 1,
with internationally-respected experts in search dog
training Andy Rebmann and Marcia Koenig. The event is opened
to registered dog teams from around the U.S. SCSARDA is also
hosting law enforcement personnel and news media at two
separate live demonstrations during the week of training.
The events will include field action, as well as question
and answer and interview opportunities.
Rebmann, author of the classic Cadaver Dog Handbook and past
president of Northwest Disaster Search Dogs, is a retired
trainer for the Connecticut State Police, and has trained
K-9 teams for patrol, narcotics, explosive, arson,
wilderness, disaster, water, and cadaver work. Since
retiring in 1991, he has conducted numerous seminars,
schools and workshops throughout the U.S., Canada and Japan.
Koenig is a founding member of the American Rescue Dog
Association, the Texas Unit of ARDA, and the Northwest
Disaster Search Dogs and King County Search Dogs
associations. She has conducted a range of disaster,
wilderness, snow, water, and cadaver searches since 1972.
"We were thrilled to be able to get two incredibly
experienced and trained dog team trainers in for our own dog
teams, as well as dog teams from other SAR organizations
around the country," said Maria Claxton, President of the
SCSARDA. "Over the years, we have sought the best
instruction we can find on so many of the varied aspects of
K9 search and rescue. In light of the recent tragic
earthquake in Italy, where cadaver dogs are in action, as
well as the recent local search for a missing child in
southern Spartanburg County, I think it's clear how
important highly trained SAR dog teams can be to
communities."
Twenty-eight participants with dog teams from all over the
U.S. are undergoing advanced cadaver search training using a
15 acre lake, Civil War era gravesites, and various wooded
locations around the Upstate. The advanced workshop focuses
on search planning and management, realistic search
problems, evidence and crime scene search, and scent work
with shallow graves, old graves, scattered remains, and
water searches. Advanced cadaver search training is just one
specialized niche of many in the field of search and rescue.
The South Carolina Search and Rescue Dog Association (SCSARDA)
is a non-profit team of professionals who dedicate their
time and resources to search for lost and missing persons in
South Carolina using search K-9s trained in trailing, area
search, cadaver, and water searches. Founded in 2002,
SCSARDA participates in more than 30 search and rescue calls
a year.
Search and rescue dogs work behind scenes to find the missing
Dogs Training To Find Drowning Victims - Take a look as search and rescue volunteers train for water searches.
Greenville News Interview - Patrick Cheatham and Maria Horn speak about SCSARDA and rescue dogs.