Kiba following trail to tower – Kocher seminar

In March 2013 SDN assisted TC Crippen, Seeker Dogs, Inc In hosting a trailing seminar with instructor Kevin Kocher. Attendees came from College Station, Bryan, Dallas, Fort Worth, Texarkana, Kansas, and other surrounding areas. Kevin’s health is deteriorating so for many of us, this was a once in a lifetime opportunity. Kevin has written a book called “The Kocher Method” describing his successful training methods. These methods have been adopted both nationally and internationally in places such as Germany, Ukraine, Netherlands, France, Italy, and elsewhere. Several members of SDN volunteered to be “rabbits” (trail layers) and learn more about this training style. Others assisted with food preparation to help attendees and instructors stay focused on the training (and maybe the desserts!)

Kiba and Jeannette in training

Kevin’s method is extremely motivational, teaching the dog to follow scent rather than search for it. One dog, Kiba, from SDN participated in the seminar and has improved leaps and bounds in the past few months using the Kocher method. Several topics that were covered in the seminar include high finds, car pickups, drownings, crime scenarios, starting a new puppy, and plenty of urban search scenarios with cement as the trailing medium. Kevin helped everyone think critically and creatively about situations that they may encounter in a call out and taught them to expose their dogs to as many things as possible.

Rewarding Kiba for finding Cindy

SDN is extremely grateful for the experience Kevin and his instructors provided us with. We hope to bring along many more dogs with the help of his method and expertise. If you are interested in his method please visit http://www.bloodhoundtraining.com/for more information and feel free to come to a training to watch our dogs work! Or learn to be a rabbit!

Kiba and Jeannette following a trail

SDN members Cindy Grant and Mary Haislet, both Human Remains Detection Dog Handlers, took the opportunity to attend a Cadaver Dog Training Workshop March 2-4, 2012 offered by the Western Carolina University (WCU) Human Identification Lab and the Forensic Anthropology Program in Cullowhee, NC. They also attended a two day workshop on Basic Field Recovery and Bone Identification Feb. 29-March 1 offered by professors at WCU.  The Cadaver Dog workshop instructors were Lisa Higgins, Brad Dennis, and Paul S. Martin.

Cindy, Mary and their canines were able to work search areas including grassy fields, mountainous terrain, urban environments, buildings, and vehicle lineups. They were able to expose their dogs to full body decomposition in the Forensic Osteology Research Station (FOREST). Classroom instruction included the human decomposition process, bone identification, forensic taphonomy, and much more. The Bone identification instructors were John Schweikart and Cheryl A. Johnston, Ph.D.

This workshop offered an incredible opportunity to train with canines on full body decomposition. Western Carolina University is the only research facility doing research using donated bodies that generously opens its doors to Human Remains Detections K-9 teams. The workshop filled up in less than 10 minutes after opening its registration on line, and it was well worth the cost and travel time. If anyone signs up for future workshops, offered in a basic and advanced level, Cindy and Mary suggest you sign up the second registration opens and if you don’t type fast—find someone who does! Here is the following link for more information:
http://www.wcu.edu/28710.asp

Special thanks to the following for making this seminar possible:

Western Carolina University and Dept. of Anthropology
David O. Belcher, Chancellor WCU
John Williams, Director of Forensic Anthropology
Bobby Hensley, Associate Director of Continuing Education
John Schweikart
Cheryl A. Johnston, Ph.D
Steven Yates and other students that assisted
Cadaver Dog Instructors
Lisa Higgins, Louisiana Search and Rescue
Brad Dennis, Director of Search Operations for Klaas KIDS Foundation
Paul S. Martin, WCU Graduate