On January 4 and 5, 2020, eight canine disaster search teams from Colorado, Iowa, Ohio, Oklahoma, and Tennessee joined veteran handlers and instructors Teresa MacPherson (Virginia Task Force 1) & Deborah Burnett (Tennessee Task Force 1) at the National Training Center (NTC) for the final in a series of four disaster search workshops. Attendees worked together to hone their search skills and challenge their canines and themselves in preparation for deployment with their respective task forces.
The following day, SDF hosted a mock Certification Evaluation, to help prepare teams for upcoming certifications that will make them deployable throughout the United States. A total of nine search teams participated and all nine successfully passed the test, receiving assessment and feedback from evaluators.
SDF is proud to offer not only training workshops but the opportunity for teams from all over to prepare for certifications, helping to get our nation's search teams ready to respond when they are called to help in the wake of disasters.
Hear from the handlers:
"I wanted to thank you for allowing us to participate in the training there. We had an awesome time. The trainers did awesome designing problems for us to do. They did a great job of balancing challenging scenarios with easier ones. I was not sure what to expect but I was not expecting three awesome rubble piles, full buildings, partial buildings, train car, vehicles in a parking lot setting and mixed in the piles, and the fun stuff to play on in the arena." - Kevin Tatro, handler of Search Dog Rush, Iowa Task Force 1
"Ally and I have been here at the Search Dog Foundation this whole weekend doing a great training and mock searches. We've had a wonderful time! The facility is incredible and I would love to train here all the time. Thank you for your generous support of the system and getting these dogs trained." - Tammy Robertson, handler of Search Dog Ally, Oklahoma Task Force 1
And check out the awesome photos from another training weekend at the Search Dog Foundation!
