Cascadia Search Dogs
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Cascadia Search Dogs contributes to the development of high-quality detection and search dogs through training, education and community service projects.
The Search Dog
Search dogs play a vital role in Search & Rescue. With their superior sense of smell, ability to move quickly and in places that are difficult for humans to go, they enhance the ability of search teams to fulfill their mission. It takes the right handler and the right dog to make a successful team and we believe that it is quality training and education that results in competent K9 teams that assist in bringing home the lost and the missing.
The “Cost of Lost”
Training search dogs and providing training and education to others is what we do! We are all volunteers who willingly and passionately donate our time and personal funds to making sure that the search dogs available to the community are highly and appropriately trained.
But all of this work costs money! We call it the “Cost of Lost”. From costs to acquire a dog, the upkeep and veterinary costs, to equipment, to travel and training costs, it adds up.
And this is where you come in. Your donation goes directly to supporting the work we do. It helps us put on high quality trainings with expert master trainers; it helps us acquire equipment such as GPS units and tracking collars; and it helps offset some of the costs of our teams attending outside trainings that help to hone and refine the skills of our team.
We are truly grateful for the community support we receive and hope that you will include us in your giving plans.
Going on the last three days the most effective tool has been dogs and just our bare hands and shovels uncovering people. But the dogs are the ones that are pinpointing a particular area to look, and we’re looking and that’s how we’re finding people.
Travis Hots, Snohomish County District 21 Fire Chief
Oso Landslide, 2014
Latest News
Yakama descendants search for relatives’ remains at Mool-Mool, or Fort Simcoe Historical State Park
Several of our CSD members have had the great honor to work alongside members of the Yakama Nation in the search for unmarked graves on the site of a Native American Boarding School just outside White Swan, WA.
To date our team has been to the site twice with our dogs that are trained in Historical Human Remains Detection. The work goes on to bring light to a dark part of our American History.
You can read the news story by reporter Anna King here: https://www.nwnewsnetwork.org/2023-11-17/yakama-descendants-search-for-relatives-remains-at-mool-mool-or-fort-simcoe-historical-state-park
Yakama descendants search for relatives’ remains at Mool-Mool, or Fort Simcoe Historical State Park
Several of our CSD members have had the great honor to work alongside members of the Yakama Nation in the search for unmarked graves on the site of a Native American Boarding School just outside White Swan, WA.
To date our team has been to the site twice with our dogs that are trained in Historical Human Remains Detection. The work goes on to bring light to a dark part of our American History.
You can read the news story by reporter Anna King here: https://www.nwnewsnetwork.org/2023-11-17/yakama-descendants-search-for-relatives-remains-at-mool-mool-or-fort-simcoe-historical-state-park
Latest Events
December 2023
Legal Considerations for the K9 Handler
In partnership with MarK9 and Hunt-Find-Alert we are pleased to offer this 3 session series of webinars on Legal Considerations for the K9 Handler.
Our presenter is Kelly W. Case who is a former Judge of the 9th Judicial District Court of Texas. He is a member of MarK9 Search & Rescue and handler of Coco, AWDA Certified Wilderness Trailing Level I.
You can read his full bio here.
All sessions start at 5PM PST and will run about 90 minutes. Cost is $10 per webinar. You can learn more about these webinars and register here.
October 24, 2023 Training Records
November 16, 2023 Mission Reports
December 12, 2023 Court Testimony
Highlights
Training & Education
We offer in-person training seminars and workshops, as well as online webinars, discussion groups, and opportunities to engage the K9 search and rescue (K9SAR) community in a variety of ways, all geared toward the development of reliable search dog teams.
Resources
We’ve pulled together a large amount of resources on everything from dog equipment to social media links, podcasts, Flipboard magazines, interesting books and much more.
News
Stay up to date on the latest happenings with CSD and the K9SAR community and learn about upcoming educational events.
Cascadia Search Dogs stands in solidarity with those advocating for institutional and systemic change. We stand with those demanding racial equity. We must reject hatred and racism, even at the most subtle level. We are stronger together!