The National Search Dog Alliance is a community of K-9 handlers committed to sharing ideas, training, and experiences. NSDA is proud to host periodic seminars and workshops with the intent of bringing in new ideas and training opportunities. The goals are to offer canine handlers from across the country an opportunity to train under experts in the field, develop their skills as searchers, and better the K-9 team who in turn make a positive difference in service to their communities. Whether you are building a foundation for your wilderness dog, preparing for certification, or focusing on advancing your skills for deployment, we welcome ina you to join us!
September 26th — September 28th, 2025: Mason Lake, Washington. Multi-discipline feld seminar offering instruction in Area/Airscent, Human Remains Detection and Trailing.
Click here to read about our instructors!
Zephrin Allen has spent nearly a decade involved in K-9 SAR as a member of MARK-9 Search and Rescue based in Dallas, TX. Zephrin currently serves as the Team Leader and Head Canine Trainer for MARK-9 and currently deploys a German Shepherd and Labrador Retriever. Zephrin has certified in Live Find and HRD through American Working Dog Association (AWDA) and National Search Dog Alliance (NSDA), where he also serves as a board member and Principal Evaluator for HRD and Area Search. Additionally, Zephrin is the founder and host of "Hunt-Find-Alert K-9 SAR" podcast, where he interviews experts in the SAR community.
Zephrin is a graduate of the Dick Stall online Detection/SAR courses and a student in the K9 Sensus Detection Dog Training Academy. Additionally he serves as an Assistant H.R.D. instructor at the Forensic Anthropology Center at Texas State (FACTS). Zephrin believes that the best instruction is helping the handler evaluate and critically think about their K-9s behavior, and understanding the "Why" behind any challenges they are facing. His goal is for handlers to feel empowered to troubleshoot their K-9s behaviors and equipped to make informed decisions on how to adjust their training plan based on the needs of their dog.
Gail Collins has been serving in K-9 Search and Rescue since 2005, and has trained, deployed, and certified dogs in multiple disciplines with civilian SAR organizations (OSSA, NSDA, IPWDA). She has served as a K-9 Unit Lead, K-9 training and testing coordinator, and incident commander, and currently holds elected Board positions with search and rescue organizations both locally and nationally. Gail is a SAR K-9 Principal Evaluator for multiple disciplines (OSSA, NSDA), and has multiple certifications in search management. She is the owner of Sunflower K-9 based in Idaho and has been a seminar and workshop instructor since 2014, with a special affinity for real-world problem solving and mentoring SAR K-9 teams.
Gail continues to be deployed on missions and investigations across the West, and has had numerous live finds and recoveries with her canine partners. She has also spent her life in the outdoors and worked as a Wildlife Biologist for over 20 years, specializing in large carnivore research in some of the most remote wilderness of the US. Gail currently is deploying her fourth K-9 partner, “Wyatt”, in human remains detection.
Neil Day is the owner and lead instructor for All Day Dog Adventures based in Montana. He is also an operational member of a SAR unit and K9 team in Flathead Valley, Montana. Neil served with the British Army and was a Police Officer with the Metropolitan Police service in London for fifteen years. Neil has been involved in K9 Search and Rescue since 2009 and since that time has trained and certified three dogs in multiple disciplines. He continues to be operational and deployed on missions across Montana.
Neil and his canines have had multiple finds in both live find and human remains detection. He has been an evaluator for various organizations and is currently an NSDA Principal Evaluator in multiple disciplines. He also has training and leadership roles in various SAR organizations. Neil has been leading and instructing multiple seminars in multiple disciplines throughout the United States since 2018.
Dr. Ben Alexander is the K9 training coordinator at the Forensic Anthropology Center at Texas State. Ben established the program in 2013 under the guidance and oversight of Dr. Daniel Wescott and has successfully coordinated all the seminars since its start.
Ben has spent his lifetime learning the science and art of training through hands on experience. He obtained a bachelor of science degree in animal science then returned to school 14 years later to obtain a master of science degree in animal science: ethology. His master's thesis was on Search Dog Performance and he has one published paper from his research. He obtained his PhD in Dec 2014 in Soil Science, forensic focus and has published two papers on HRD dog capabilities in regards to forensic soils.
Ben has over 40 years of various K9 training experience having also taught obedience classes for over 20 years, assisting with service dog training and testing and training therapy dogs. Ben became involved in search and rescue in 2000. His first nationally certified recovery dog, was a border collie named "Pete" starting in 2003. Ben has partnered with 5 nationally certified partners, all of which have had recoveries on land and water. He has participated in recovery efforts after Hurricanes Katrina and Ike and the memorial day floods of 2015, as well as many drownings and missing person searches across the state of Texas. Ben began teaching HRD classes in 2010, and has taught classes from AZ to NY, specializing in water recovery classes. He has assisted with the FACTS HRD K9 classes since its start in 2013.
Karen Paquette began her SAR career in 2003 in Pima County, Tucson, AZ, and has deployed on over 150 searches in wilderness, urban, water, and support of law enforcement investigations. Karen serves as Training Director with Pima County’s volunteer K9SAR team, Southwest Rescue Dogs, Inc., (since 2014). She is an evaluator for multiple organizations (NASAR, NSDA) and has achieved national certifications (and recertifications) with three canine partners in Land HRD, Water HRD, Area live find, as well as Crime Scene certification. Karen has assisted with FACTS workshops since 2013 serving as wrangler, assistant instructor, and instructor.
Karen has planned, assisted with, and instructed at several Arizona State SAR conferences and SAR HRD seminars. She is now training with her sixth canine partner. Karen retired from the field of education after 25 years, working mostly in Special Education with students with behavior and emotional disorders, developmental disorders, and learning disabilities. She also worked in a leadership capacity as a teacher mentor, coach, curriculum support provider, behavior interventionist, and specific academic interventionist. She achieved KPA-CTP (Karen Pryor Academy Certified Training Partner) in 2018. Karen enjoys gleaning training skills and concepts from sport dog training to adapt and implement in SAR training.
Tiffanie Turner has over 40 years of experience working with behavior modification. She has used learning theory and behavior modification to train horses, cats, dogs, pigs and chickens. Honing her skills at observation and understanding the scent detection dog, she has successfully selected and trained several HRD dogs for wilderness and urban search and recovery missions, as well as trained dogs for conservation work to detect invasive or endangered species of plants and animals. She obtained her degree from Texas A&M University, College of Biomedical Science where she now works imaging hoof stock and teaching 4th year vet students techniques in safety and imaging.
Tiffanie began her SAR career with a border collie mix named "Fanta" who would go on to be recognized as the National Association for Search and Rescue's K9 of the year in 2010 for her outstanding work on multiple recoveries and incredible working ability. She has trained and certified dogs for national certifications in wilderness HRD with: NNDDA, NASAR, NAPWDA and currently fields a FEMA disaster Live find K9 "Croc-it" and has retired her FEMA HRD disaster K9 “Fetchit”. Tiffanie participated in the recovery efforts for hurricane Ike and the Memorial Day floods of 2015, California wildfires as well as many missing person searches.
With her outstanding patience and commitment to the dog's success she has helped many handlers and canines overcome hurdles and improve their partnership and overall performance. Tiffanie has taught HRD classes at seminars from AZ to NY and has aided many handlers in starting their HRD dogs on odor as well as challenged the advanced K9 teams and improved overall performance with her insight and troubleshooting abilities. Tiffanie's experience and dedication has help make the Forensic Anthropology Center at Texas State University HRD K9 seminars an amazingly successful seminar since the start of 2013.
Heather Jo Cutting has been involved with canine search and rescue since 1997 when she and her husband joined King County Search Dogs with their first Labrador Retrievers Edgar and Boston. Her interest in K9 SAR goes back to the late 1980s when she was on a snow camping weekend with Girl Scouts and volunteered to hide in the snow for Marcia Koenig and one her early SAR dogs. Heather has worked with 7 dogs and her current dog, Tika, is 4 year old chocolate lab, working in area (airscent), HRD, and water with HRD certifications through IPWDA and NSDA. To date, Heather has been on more than 520 search missions as a dog handler and also serves as an operations leader (search manager), senior trainer and instructor. She has led or assisted with SAR dog workshops throughout the Pacific Northwest and internationally in Japan and New Zealand, including for area, HRD, water, avalanche, trailing, and search management. Heather is also a Principal Evaluator for the National Search Dog Alliance.
Josh Gerstman has been involved with canine search and rescue since 1997 when he and his wife joined King County Search Dogs with their first Labrador Retrievers Edgar and Boston, and since has worked with 7 dogs in that time. Josh’s current dogs are 12 year old Natick - certified area (airscent) and HRD, and have done extensive work on water and snow - and 10 month old Erie - a yellow lab who has recently begun training for wilderness airscent. Josh has been deployed on close to 500 (497 at last count) search missions as a dog handler and also serves as an operations leader (search manager), senior trainer, and public information officer. Josh has led or assisted with SAR dog workshops throughout the Pacific Northwest and internationally, including area, HRD, water, avalanche, trailing, and search management. Josh is also a Principal Evaluator for the National Search Dog Alliance.
Mark Holmes with a thirty-nine year career in Law Enforcement, has been a Detective in the Criminal Investigations Division for the last 27 years and is assigned to Homicide/Cold Case Homicide of the Jefferson County, TX Sheriff's Office. Mark also holds the Master Peace Officer Certification from the State of Texas. He became a Law Enforcement K-9 handler in 1994. As a K-9 handler, he has been called upon to assist the F.B.I., U.S. Marshall's Office, U.S. State Department, The U.S. Department of the Interior - National Park Service, the United States Consulates Office, the Mexican Consulates Office, National Aeronautic Space Administration (NASA - Space Shuttle Disaster), and Texas Department of Criminal Justice - Office of the Inspector General.
Mark has also worked numerous canine related mantrailing cases throughout Texas, Louisiana, Georgia, and Florida including federal and state prison escapes. As a K-9 Handler, he is recognized as an Expert Witness in both Texas and Louisiana Judicial Court Systems. He is a nationally recognized canine mantrailing instructor and Founded and is the President of both Texas Bloodhound Search and Rescue and the United States Mantrailing Association. Mark has taught well over 100 canine mantrailing seminars/ courses throughout the United States and has authored/co-authored numerous training articles relating to canine mantrailing and scent specific canine training.
Amity Larsen is the owner of The Good Shepherd K9 Training and co-owner of Precision K9 Detection, LLC based in Idaho. She is a reward-based dog trainer and handler who specializes in scent detection and puppy training for working and companion dogs. Amity is an AKC evaluator who offers Basic and Advanced Obedience training, online classes, CGC, CGCA, and CGCU classes and testing opportunities, as well as offering seminars and workshops across the United States.
Amity raises, trains, and occasionally breeds German Shepherds for search and rescue and private detection work. It is a breed she loves and is committed to preserving. She has titled several of her shepherds for CGC, as well as AKC Trick Titles. She has been training/handling detection dogs since 2012 and serves as an evaluator for several organizations. She is currently the K-9 Lead for Lewis County (Idaho) Search and Rescue K-9 Unit and also deploys at the request of other agencies in the Pacific Northwest. She has certified dogs in Human Remains Detection (including crime scene), Tracking/Trailing, Area Search, Evidence Recovery, and Narcotics with multiple organizations (NSDA, IPWDA, Idaho POST). She currently has a certified SAR K-9, Brynhildr, with two more in training.
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