Meet The Instructors
Foundational Trailing – Rusty Jones, NAPWDA Master Trainer
Limited to 10 Handlers
Rusty is a retired State Trooper from North Carolina. Rusty began working dogs at a young age as his family trained bird hunting dogs for field trials. He later progressed through training a FEMA dog for himself prior to receiving his first canine from the Highway Patrol. Throughout his career he worked as a canine handler, canine trainer, paramedic and criminal interdiction team member. He retired after 28 years of service in January 2023. He has been involved in the training of over 2000 canine teams and received his Master Trainer accreditation from the North American Police Work Dog Association (NAPWDA) in 2008. He has over 15,000 hours of canine training since 1996. Rusty currently serves as the National Secretary for NAPWDA.
Advanced Trailing – Alex Tkacenko, Chief of Central Jersey K9 SAR
Limited to 8 Handlers
Alex Tkacenko is OEM Coordinator of Plumsted Township NJ, who is also a certified K-9 officer and certified Police K9 Trainer and Instructor responsible for canine search and rescue and recovery missions in NJ. Alex has been working in training all types of K9’s since 1992. He has instructed & evaluated and certified for himself different types of disciplines in the canine world, for Live find Airscent, HRD, Mantrailing, Narcotics, Explosives K9’s are some of the types he has personally Handled and certified with. He train’s K9’s 2 the standards of NJPP CCA, US PCA to certify police canines for Patrol, Explosive, Narcotics, Cadaver, Accelerant Detection, Mantrailing and Live Find Search Dogs.
Alex Is the current sitting president for SARCNJ and cofounder of Central Jersey K9 Search and Rescue. He has been a member of the Berkeley Township Underwater Search and Rescue since 2017. He hold’s a TEEX Canine Search Specialist FEMA & US&R and Task Force Leader certification as well is a NASAR Canine Evaluator Certification. Alex has trained and handled dogs in human remains detection, live find airscent, mantrailing, narcotics and explosives K9’s. He has personally handled and trained many various types of dogs for sheep dog competitions especially border collies, and hunting type dogs for competitions. As well it’s a basic and advanced obedience dog trainer and behavioral dog trainer. Alex believes in building the bond with dog and handler so that the handler TRUST THEIR DOG/PARTNER.
Alex currently handles and is certified with K9 Rusty & Piper Bloodhounds for Mantrailing both very successful, K9 Vegas a GSD certified in Mantrailing, HRD, Live Find with success in all 3 disciplines, K9 Tequila Belgium Malinios certified Narcotics and Trailing, K9 River a GSD certified in Explosives.
Class Description and Bio Coming Soon
Air Scent/Beginner – Nicole Cheale, DOGS-East
Limited to 6 Handlers
Nicole joined DOGS-East Search and Rescue in 2010, and during her time with the team has dual certified both her dogs in wilderness live find and HRD. She has responded to hundreds of searches up and down the east coast during her SAR career. Nicole serves as an evaluator and on the Board of Directors for DOGS-East.
Air Scent/Intermediate-Advanced – Jessica Burnside, DOGS-East
Limited to 6 Handlers
Following a career as a commercial airline pilot, Jessica became involved in canine search and rescue in 2006 and a became member of DOGS-East Search and Rescue in 2008. She has trained three operational dogs, K9 Boomer (ret.), K9 Puck, and K9 Grif. Both K9 Boomer and K9 Puck, black Labradors, were dual certified in Wilderness Live and Human Remains Detection (HRD). K9 Puck has since retired from Wilderness Live and is certified in HRD only. K9 Grif, a border collie, is currently certified in Wilderness Live Find. Jessica is currently an Operational Leader at DOGS-East and has served as President, Vice President/Standards Officer, Treasurer, and team evaluator during her time as a member. She is also a State Evaluator for the Virginia Search and Rescue Program in both Live Find and HRD. Jessica has responded, at the request of local, state, and federal agencies to hundreds of SAR missions all over the Commonwealth, as well as DC, MD, PA, WV, TN and NC. And she has been included at the Mid-Atlantic Cold Case Homicide Investigators Association Round Table. Having assisted on missions including Wilderness, HRD, Water and natural disasters, Jessica has taught seminars and given lectures on multiple facets of Canine SAR in areas extending to NY, PA, MD, and WV.
Foundational HRD – Deb Clark, Animal Control Officer, Connecticut
Limited to 10 Handlers
This class is great for all level odor detection dogs and anyone wanting to better their dogs response through engagement and rewards. Foundation and fundamental exercises will be used to focus specific K9 behavior. This will aid in resolving alert challenges with all levels of dogs – quick alerts, clean and precise decision making.
My name is Deborah Clark and I have been in K9 Search and Rescue since 2000. I wanted to get involved in dogs and decided K9 Search and Rescue was something I could bring my past experiences and the enjoyment of the outdoors and my love for animals together. I obtained K9 Hunter a Golden Retriever. He was a good dog and was finally certified in both Area Wilderness and Cadaver. I learned a lot since 2000 and without the expertise of several K9 Master Trainers and a great circle of friends it paved my way to where I am today.
Search and Rescue is not my full time job. I work as an Animal Control Officer and the fire department for 10 years. I am currently a volunteer with the Farmington CERT team where my Search and Rescue Canines are members. I also have my own dog training business. I have trained hundreds of pet dogs, services dog and my current project is a police facility dog. It has been a rewarding path which I have a strong passion for training and working dogs and helping others with their K9 training. I travel out of state to assist other SAR K9 teams with their training several times a year and enjoy seeing them pass their certification tests so they can continue and save lives and bring closure.
Between Hunter, Murphy, Kai, Phalcon and Edge we have done several searches for the Town of Farmington through the Fire Department and now Farmington CERT.
HRD/Intermediate-Advanced – Athena Haus
Limited to 10 Handlers
Athena Haus has 28 years of experience in the field of Search and Rescue with 26 of those in public service, as a Firefighter/Paramedic and Fire Officer. She was a Founding Member of FEMA Ohio Task Force One where she served as a Search Team Manager, Canine Coordinator and Canine Search Specialist when the team was in its infancy, helping to build the training program and current disaster site. She has also served as a Canine Search Specialist for FEMA California Task Force One and Indiana Task Force One, working both human remains detection and live find canines. Athena has deployed as a Canine asset with all three FEMA teams while she was a rostered member. She is the founder of K9 Karma, a canine training business, specializing in the working canine and behavioral canine issues.
For the past 20 years, she has traveled the country as an instructor, evaluator, and facilitator for search and rescue, as well as, tactical medicine classes and workshops. Athena specializes in live find disaster search and wilderness, as well as, human remains detection land and disaster. She has responded to countless disaster and missing person searches for local, state and federal agencies. She has managed several large scale local incidents as the Commanding Fire Officer operating in a Unified Command Structure. She frequently consults as a subject matter expert for large scale disaster training exercises, providing guidance in search strategy and planning and resource management. During her years as a disaster and fire service responder, Athena repeatedly saw that there was a lack of resources and training opportunities to fully prepare canine handlers and teams to manage canine injuries. She established BARK; Basic Aid to Responder K9 program, partnering with Tri-Med Tactical, providing training at the Ohio Fire Academy, Ohio Tactical Officer Association, IDHS as well as other organizations. This training ensures that teams with canines embedded in the disaster and tactical environment have access to basic, real world, hands on canine medical training.
K9 Highline – PA Mountain Rescue
Sign Up Required at Summit
K9s will be harnessed with handler to be able to get the experience of having to be lifted on a building or over a hazard. Handlers are required to wear a helmet. If you have a harness for your dog, please bring it – but harnesses will be provided by PAMR.
Pennsylvania Mountain Rescue is a wilderness SAR team based out of Monroe county. PAMR specializes in search logistics and mapping, patient care and evacuation, and technical rope skills. The team was founded in 2018 by members of two other SAR teams after the need for a rescue specific organization was realized. PAMRs membership is comprised of individuals with professional experience and personal passions for the outdoors and community service. The team is based out of Stroudsburg Pennsylvania and listed as Monroe county station 75.
K9 First Aid – Dr. JJ Cates and Dr. Dan Bacaloglu
Dr. JJ Cates is a veterinarian in Northern Virginia focusing on working dog medicine and canine fitness and rehabilitation. She is a 2018 graduate of the University of Pennsylvania School of Veterinary Medicine. Following veterinary school, JJ served as a Captain in the US Army Veterinary Corps stationed at Ft. Bragg, NC and Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, AK until 2022. While serving in the Army, she cared for Military Working Dogs and TSA K9s and trained handlers, medics, and human health care providers in K9 trauma and point of injury care. In 2023, she developed and instructed the K9 field medical care curriculum for the inaugural Urban SAR K9 Trainers’ course at the Penn Vet Working Dog Center in Philadelphia, PA. JJ currently trains and handles her Belgian malinois, Echo, in live find wilderness search and rescue. C
Map & Compass – Mike Burk, Bedford County SAR
Limited to 12 participants
United States Army, Army Reserve, Army National Guard Retired. Extensive experience in map and compass usage, and land navigation both in training in the field. Taught map and compass and land navigation to soldiers and officer candidates in both classroom and outdoor settings. Currently Captain, Search Management Team, Bedford County Wilderness SAR.
Students will become familiar with USGS Topographic maps. They will become familiar with finding direction and distance using a compass and pace count. Students who have their own compasses are encouraged to bring them, there will be a limited supply for use at class.
Wilderness First Aid (Two Days) – Kathy Otruba (Emergency Care and Safety Institute)
Limited to 12 Participants
Kathy Otruba is an RN, EMT instructor, EMT, CPR instructor with AHA as well as an instructor with ECSI. She has been active in SAR for 18 yrs training as a ground person and K9 handler and currently the Commander of Lower Kiski SAR.
This WFA course is a 16-hour course. Friday and Saturday 0830-1630. The certification is for 2 years. The course requires a CPR certification. Kathy will be teaching a heart saver CPR concurrently with the WFA class. If the student already has CPR that is OK.
NASAR – SAR Tracking Fundamentals (Two Days) – John Norris
Limited to 16 Participants
Course Time: Roughly 1200 min. (two days) 1.5Hr night element on day one Helpers should bring multiple pairs of shoes. Expected Learner Outcome: Develop skill sets to perform specific land SAR tracking tasks. To demonstrate a need to increase the use of tracking skills during land search incident. Emphasize the need for continued interaction with other trackers, expanding the use of this skill set within your unit and recognize the need for weekly [if not daily] practice. Instructor Intent: Lecture with PPT presentation to define NASAR Tracking concepts and then set up field exercises to practice these concepts. Practice must contain the common tasks that a tracker would be expected to perform during a land search incident. Conditions: Under controlled pre-defined environments provide step-by-step modules in lecture and field exercise format. Typical: During each module student involvement will be observed and participation will be expected. There will be a written test at the end to establish core knowledge of the material–no field skill levels will be recorded. Expected 70% or greater to pass written test. (100 Question) Those who attend 80% or greater of the course and pass the written examination will be awarded a Track Aware certificate from NASAR.
John Norris is a West Virginia native, who from a very young age, spent many hours with his father hunting, hiking, gathering, and tracking in the wilderness. John joined the Army right after high school. During his time in the Army, John attended the Tracking/Counter-Tracking Course taught at the JFK Special Warfare Center at Ft. Bragg. It was during this course that John was able to bridge the gap between his hunting knowledge and Mantracking. Johns combat tours include Hati, Bosnia/Kosovo, Afghanistan, Iraq, and South East Asia. Before leaving active duty, John became and Army Master Instructor and Training Developer. As a Army Civilian (DA Civil Service/GS), he continued his career as an instructor and training developer until 2019. John currently works in a Research, Development, Test, and Evaluation (RDT&E) branch of the Army at Aberdeen Proving Grounds, and volunteers his time to Search and Rescue, serving on the Board of Directors, and as Chief of PaWSARs Eastern Division. John is a NASAR Certified Tracker I, and became a Tracking Fundamentals instructor and SARTECH Tracker Evaluator to help bring those skillsets back to local SAR teams.
Search Management/SARTopo – Marnie Powell
This Class will combine lecture and table top exercises using scenarios to determine ‘first on scene’ tasks we can implement to be able to possibly find our subject faster. Skills will also include SARTopo exercises to add tasks and areas to a map, and start to organize searches for the next operational period, and as more personnel get on scene.
Map Analysis and reporting as people start to come in from the field, along with K9 behaviors and analysis will also be discussed.
Search Management/K9 Map Analysis – Marnie Powell
This discussion will be an analysis of GPS data using HRD K9s working area problems with collars. The class is designed to review data presented from K9 teams on a search, and evaluate whether we need to re-search an area, and to understand what our K9s are trying to tell us that we may not be able to see in the field.
Marnie has been involved in search and rescue for over 22 years. She is currently K9 Captain of Pennsylvania Wilderness Search and Rescue. She is also working her 6th and 7th dogs in trailing and HRD, both certified with IPWDA. She created this analysis class to get a better understanding of map data, and analyzing key data that may be represented on a map that we don’t see in the field.
Crime Scene Preservation – Detective Lindsey Taylor
This crime scene awareness lecture is appropriate for all search and rescue personnel who will deploy on searches. Employing the RESPOND mnemonic, the class gives an overview of points to remember during each phase of the search process in order to optimize evidence preservation. The second half of the class consists of practical exercises for students to test their observation skills in small groups.
Lindsey has been a Police Officer in Norwalk, CT for the past 9 years, and has been a Detective for the past 5 years. She works on a wide variety of investigations including death investigations, missing persons, shootings, and other violent crimes. Prior to her career in law enforcement, she spent several years working as an EMT and continues to teach as both an EMS Instructor and Tactical Emergency Combat Care Instructor. Her experience with search and rescue began over 12 years ago with her first air scent dog, and she currently works a single purpose cadaver dog named Remy. She and Remy have deployed on both cold cases and active Police investigations in multiple states.