Bedford County Wilderness Search Team Inc.

 

 

K-9 Strike Team

The Bedford County Wilderness Search Team devised the K-9 strike team to assist authorities to locate lost persons.  Our strike team trains regularly, and offers both air scent and trailing K-9 services.  Our handlers' training philosophy is a mixture of tried and true training methods that are tailored  to each dog.  We believe there is no cookie cutter method to training dogs.

K-9 Specialist

Our K-9 handlers understand that not all searches will require the use of their dog.  Because of this, they train in ground search techniques, in addition to the long hours they spend training their partners.  Our handlers must meet a minimum required certifications of NASAR SARTech II, 16hr NFA Incident Command, CPR, and Wilderness First Aid.  Many of our handlers are also certified as Wilderness EMT's so that they can further assist the injured or ill lost person once they are found. 

Our K-9's begin their training at an early age with the introduction of hunt drive building exercises and runaway problems.  These techniques help the dog understand how we want them to use their nose and also teaches them the find command.  Once the dog has the basic idea of search work, their tasks get increasingly more difficult as their handler strives toward the goal of getting their partner operational.  Our partners also begin socialization at a young age.  Socialization and search training is continued throughout the dogs life.

Each K-9 specialist team must meet a minimum requirement of NASAR Canine SARTech III, but are highly encouraged to acquire additional certifications as well.

Coming soon each K-9 will have their own page.

© 2007 Bedford County Wilderness Search Team, Inc.  All Rights Reserved

Website created and maintained by Jacob Berkey

Revised: March 13, 2007