Elle Salinas was born and raised in Pennsylvania near Lake Erie. She moved from Pennsylvania to Virginia shortly after graduating high school. Elle got into law enforcement at the age of 21 and worked in Jail Operations, Investigations, CSI, Hostage Crisis Negotiations, School Resource Officer, Field Training Officer, Undercover Operations, among other positions. Just prior to being promoted to Sergeant, she took a Police Chief position moving to Washington State.

While working as the first female Police Chief for her department in Okanogan County, at the Canadian Border, she worked closely with Dept. of Homeland Security, Border Patrol, Canadian Border Patrol, Federal Bureau of Investigation along with other federal and international agencies protecting the state of Washington from drug smuggling and other law enforcement issues. While working in law enforcement, Elle put herself through college to become a Neuropsychologist, specializing in traumatic brain injury and post concussive syndrome. She then moved to California where she worked as a doctor and clinical supervisor there. She moved to the beautiful state of Texas in 2022 with her husband.

Elle got into dog training in 2018 by joining CARDA, the CA Governors dog team with the Office of Emergency Services, and San Luis Obispo County K9 Team. She has several certifications that she brings to the Search Dog Network team with her German Shepherd, Chief. Elle and Chief are trained to work in high elevation, low angle rescue, patient packaging, helicopter transport, helicopter hot load, man tracking, ropes, mountain navigation, along with classes for NASAR II. Chief works well in thick terrain and high elevation and has experience in large source cadaver and snow work. Elle and Chief joined Search Dog Network in 2023 as a certified area / air scent dog team.