Buckeye Search and Rescue Dogs was founded in 2004, but many of our handlers and staff have years of experience with other teams before our founding or joining BSARD.
Over the years we have responded to small one-team requests up to multi-day, multi-agency incidents at the state, regional, and national scale such as hurricanes and floods.
All BSARD members are required to pass a comprehensive criminal background check.
Experience
Most of the members of BSARD have a decade or more experience training and working in SAR. During that period, team members have responded to . . .
- Searches in wilderness and urban settings.
- Mantrailing and Area searches.
- Short-term (under 6 months) and Long-term (6 months and older) Human Remains (HR) searches.
- Searches for unmarked burials.
- Water HRD searches in still water (small ponds to large lakes) and moving water (small streams to large rivers).
- HRD searches in collapsed and burnt structures.
- Post-flood survivor and HRD searches.
Areas of Operation
Buckeye Search and Rescue Dogs is a non-jurisdictional all-volunteer team, and is available to respond to a search anywhere we are needed. To date our members have performed and/or assisted in searches in over 70 different counties in . . .
- Ohio
- Kentucky
- Indiana
- Iowa
- Mississippi
- Missouri
- West Virginia
Often we may not be the closest resource available to a Missing Person Incident. In those cases we can help direct the calling agency to one of our many partner organizations for quicker response. Sometimes those organizations will in turn call back to us for backup or other additional assistance based on the needs of the incident.
Certification
K9/Handler teams are expected to focus their training with a view toward being certified in their chosen discipline(s) by an external accreditation organization. A certifying team consists of a specific K9 working with a specific handler, and together they must meet the qualifying standard(s) in order to receive their certification in that discipline.
BSARD teams certify to the standard published by, and administered by a master trainer of, the International Police Work Dog Association (IPWDA). Our teams certify every other year, often staggering the certifications for multi-disciplinary teams.
Handlers and staff are also expected to focus their continuing education and certification in those skills necessary to perform their functions.
Details for each K9/Handler team and other staff can be found in their profiles on the Our Staff page.