About Us
K-9 Searching Out Scent is a certified, fully insured, trained all-volunteer non-profit organization. The team’s main objective is to provide assistance to emergency agencies in northeast Ohio and western Pennsylvania.
K-9 S.O.S. has assisted numerous local police and fire departments, county coroner offices, Pennsylvania State Patrol, Ohio State Police, Pennsylvania State Attorney General Office, Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, Ohio Department of Natural Resources, and the Army Corps of Engineers. Our services are provided FREE OF CHARGE to requesting agencies.
K-9 S.O.S. has successfully assisted many local agencies in locating missing persons including despondent subjects, those suffering with dementia or Alzheimer’s, recovering bodies both on land and in water, recovery of articles/ evidence, trace evidence, and the detection of human remains.
K-9 S.O.S. DOES NOT, however, respond to any felony related calls. Our dogs are NOT trained for criminal pursuit, aggression, arson, drug, or bomb detection.
Education
Our dogs have completed classes in obedience, agility, and search and rescue work. All dogs have successfully completed the Canine Good Citizen (CGC) course. Both training and certification for search and rescue are an on-going process.
Handlers have completed and maintain certification in Basic First Aid and CPR (both human and canine) and AED. Handlers have earned SAR-TECH certification through NASAR (National Association for Search And Rescue). Other classes successfully completed include: Wilderness Search Responder, Map and Compass/GPS, Basic and Advanced Grid Tactics, Incident Command ICS-100 and ICS-200, National Information Management System (NIMS) IS-700, IS-800, and IS-809, Bloodborne Pathogens, Hazardous Materials Awareness, Crime Scene Preservation, Scent Theory, Legal Aspects of HRD, and Forensic Pathology. Dog teams have also participated in seminars to exercise their skills in HRD both on land and water.
Training
Handlers train their own dogs with team assistance. Group training sessions are held several times a week giving the dogs and handlers the opportunity to reinforce their skills. Simulated scenarios for live finds are set up in wilderness or urban settings seeking a “lost subject”. During a training session, if using the command for a scent-specific search, the canine uses a scent article of the “lost subject” to either trail or air-scent to the location of that person. Once found, the canine returns to the handler to give a bark alert which lets the handler know the subject has been located. Then on command, the dog returns to the subject with the handler. The canine completes the task by using a trained indication (either sitting or lying down at the subject) and is rewarded for a successful “find”. K-9 S.O.S. dogs are also trained to work without a scent article, whereby they will locate any human scent. Our dogs are also trained to find trace evidence.
When working HRD (human remains detection), the scenarios are set up either outdoors or in buildings, vehicles, rubble piles, and on or near water (ponds, lakes, rivers). The dog must locate the source and then alert and indicate to the handler in order to earn the reward.
K-9 S.O.S. believes in the value of continuing education to gain information from other teams and instructors and to enhance current skills of SAR methods and techniques. The team has trained with other SAR groups from Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Virginia, and North Carolina.
Training is on-going and is held several times a week. Training may take place in wilderness settings, urban settings, buildings, disaster/ rubble settings, vehicles, and in water or along a shoreline.
Certifications
K-9 S.O.S. dog teams are currently certified through both IPWDA (International Police work Dog Association) and NAPWDA (North American Work Dog Association). Our team has dogs certified in Trailing, Wilderness Search (Air Scenting) and HRD (Human Remains Detection) including buried sources, sources on surface, in buildings, in vehicles, in rubble, and in water.