Advanced HRD: Low Thresholds and Complex Odor

We are pleased to have Mary Cablk, PhD as our instructor for this 3 day workshop – October 10 – 12, 2025

To be held in Snohomish County, WA

This seminar is for Advanced HRD handlers with a focus on:

• Working low concentration thresholds
• Training pinpoint final responses
• Recognizing complex overlapping odors
• Patterning systematic, methodical searches
• Building handler/K9 connection
• Clarity in communication with your K9
• Handler-K9 roles and responsibilities/expectations

Pre-requisites:

• canine has an independent final response
• canine understands odors of human decomposition and bones
• canine does not have preservation issues with training aids: mouthing, licking, eating, pawing, urinating or defecating near or on source
• canine works training aids out of containers without preservation issues
• certification is not required so long as the above criteria are met

Additional Information:

• this training is for canine teams working law enforcement cases, not disaster humanitarian searches
• crime scene preservation principles are maintained throughout the training unless lifted for certain lessons by the instructor
• canines in heat, whether visible outward signs or not, may not participate in the training
• this training will involve feedback and actual training to handlers. This is not a “your dog is great” feel good no critique seminar. 
• shaped final responses not on command (focus stare) make certain aspects of this training difficult and not all of the training may be accomplished without a final response that can be cued by the handler
• aggressive alerts or alerts that involve a destructive component are not allowed
• canines with preservation issues will not be allowed to participate in all exercises. Ensure your canine is appropriate when registering. 

Ensure your canine is appropriate when registering.

Click here for Application for Audit Spot Only

Mary Cablk, PhD, has been a K9 handler in search, rescue and recovery for over 25 years. While three of her canine partners are/were single purpose HRD, she has trained and certified with four different canine partners in area, avalanche, human remains/cadaver, and water.

She is an auxiliary deputy with multiple sheriff offices in Nevada, the Reno Police Department Robbery Homicide Unit’s HRD K9 team, a Nevada POST certified K9 evaluator and a member of the Nevada POST canine standards committee. She is a founding and current member of the Specialized HRD K9 Team in California, which handles mutual aid requests for criminal nexus cases as well as the president of WOOF Search Dog Teams, Inc.

In her career as a K9 handler she has responded to hundreds of searches and her canine have located hundreds of remains in fatal fires, high velocity impact accidents (aircraft, trains), crime scenes, accidental deaths, suicides, homicides, and drowning, among others. Her current K9 is a Belgian Malinois, single purpose and certified in HRD and water. Mary is a retired research professor emeritus and an adjunct professor in anthropology with the University of Tennessee Knoxville, conducting research into residual odor of live and deceased human comparing canine detection with analytical chemistry.

She is a member of the American Academy of Forensic Sciences and sits on the AAFS Consensus Body for Dogs and Sensors and is a member of three of the Academy’s Standard’s Board Working Groups: HRD for land, Water recovery, and Presentation of Canine Evidence in Court. She is a court qualified expert on multiple canine disciplines, the science of canine detection, training handlers and training canines in federal and state courts. Mary brings a wealth of experience and understands the challenges, pressures, highs and lows of being a handler. She is an advocate for handler’s dogs and her instruction simplifies the complexity of the scientific community into practical application for handlers. 

Thanks to our funding partners, we are offering this seminar at a discounted rate.