Team Info
Task Force: California Task Force 5 (CA-TF5)
Level: FEMA Certified
Most Recent Certification: April 23, 2017
Search Dog Info
Breed: German Shepard
Sex: Female
Born: August 20, 2007
Sonja has been involved in the field of Canine Disaster Search for 17 years. She has trained four of her own Search Dogs: Otto, Drako, Czaro, and Asta, her current canine partner, as well as many of SDF’s Search Dogs.
Sonja served as a Canine Search Specialist on Virginia Task Force 1 from 1997 until 2013, when she moved to California to join SDF’s Canine Training Team. Though she has gone on to pursue new training opportunities, Sonja and Asta continue as a SDF Search Team and serve on California Task Force 5, which is based in Orange County.
Her international deployments include the U.S Embassy Bombing in Nairobi, Kenya, earthquakes in Turkey, Taiwan, Iran and Haiti, and the 2008 school collapse in Haiti. Her homeland deployments include the Pentagon in September 2001, Hurricanes Isabel, Rita, Katrina, Gustav and Ike, and recovery efforts of the Space Shuttle Columbia crew.
Sonja also serves as a FEMA instructor, Certification Evaluator, and mentor to Canine Disaster Search Teams across the U.S. She has given FEMA training courses to task forces in Iceland, the United Kingdom, and Taiwan as well as to domestic Task Forces and emergency response agencies across the USA.