Home

Our Mission

Our Teams

About Us - A Message from the Founder

Thank you for your interest in Peace River K-9 SAR, Inc.

While at a Regional Schutzhund event some years ago, I ran into an old SAR friend who I knew from my dog training days back in California. She encouraged me to get back into K-9 Search and Rescue and the PRSAR is the result of that encouragement. My friend Carolyn has since lost her battle to cancer, but I hope that PRSAR will live up to the vision that we had for this Association.
I have spent much of the last 5 years traveling the USA and Canada learning from some of the best trainers in the world. My goal was to find a simple, effective and reliable training method and bring that home to form this group. My method is a combination of what I learned and what my dogs have taught me. When combining this learning with great dogs and eager handlers— it has made a powerful combination and formed a useful tool for the community.
The formation of PRSAR is simple. We basically have 2 groups—those that have Certified and those working towards Certification. Those individuals Certified will be on the Call out team and will make themselves available to answer whatever calls may come our way. The training is open to all breeds and owners who want to come out and train. I realized many years ago while training folks with “pet problems” that most of the dogs were suffering from boredom and needed something to do! This gives those owners and pets something to do and serve their community at the same time. I cannot tell you how many times I have heard from pet owners about how all these bad behaviors went away when we started training with the PRSAR group.

What You Can Expect While Training with PRSAR

PRSAR has a 6 month open training season that runs from May to October, when anyone who wishes may come out and train. This is called the Level 1 class. When you train with our group you will get the opportunity to work your dog in Tracking, Obedience, Agility and Scent Detection. You and your K-9 will also learn how to load on and off a Helicopter properly, fly in fixed wing aircraft, ride in Air and power boats, scale rubble piles, search smoke filled buildings and repel down a rope at a rather quick speed, learn First Aid, Land navigation and Self-defense….sound like fun—it is! At the end of the 6 month period you will have the chance to certify your dog with a National Police K9 Association. And if you pass and wish you be part of the PRSAR Deployment group, you will have that chance!

My Training Philosphy---Finding Balance

When first coming out to train with PRSAR I will usually begin to ask the pet owner questions like “can you work your dog off lead?” or “will your dog come when called”, the answers to questions like these give tremendous insight into the current state of the pet owners relationship. In order to be effective in the K9 SAR deployment we must first go to work on fixing the deficiencies in the relationship.

I have seen such detriment to the pet/handler relationship in the past years with the advent of the “Alpha dog and Dominance” style of training. This type of training degrades the dogs’ abilities to being nothing more than an object to be Over Powered and Dominated usually through the mental, verbal and physical abuse of the dog. However, a relationship carries with it much more. It is a world of ties and bonds that, although not always perfect, is far more rewarding for both the dog and owner and will enrich and sustain our lives higher than we have ever thought possible.

Relationships and power are neither good nor bad, but they are linked. For any relationship to prosper there must always be a “balance of power.” I understand that the word Power sometimes carries with it negative connotations of abuse and fear, but in the dogs mind it really is simply all about power. While many pet owners shy away from taking positions of power and leadership with their dogs, instead choosing to live in the fantasy world of the “special relationship” they think they have with their dog. But for the dog—power is EVERYTHING! As a social pack creature, the dog understands (without any emotional baggage) that power is granted unequally, in other words that a hierarchy exists and it is to be honored as an integral part of the social fabric of the pack.

Through training we readjust the balance of power to form the K9 team. The relationships with our dogs are like all relationships in our lives-complex, time consuming, maddening but still very rewarding. However, unlike our relationships with Humans, we must be willing and ready to play the role of leader and work towards an appropriate balance of power with our K9 partner. For us humans it takes time to learn, but for our dogs it is just a way of life! We have taken these wonderful animals and placed them within the confines of our culture and we have a very serious obligation to provide the leadership they so desperately need to complete their lives and ours.

In many cases, by providing well-meaning but misplaced kindness that does not create limits for the dog, it is possible to create the same behavior problems that occur as a result of the fore mentioned direct physical, mental and verbal abuse. But do not worry that your dog is ruined for our dogs have a very generous and forgiving spirit and will be happy to help you rebuild the bridge to cross the gap that separates you. But they can only build so far! We must build our part of the bridge by using love, understanding and the wise use of power. Only then, can we create a bridge that will take both dog and handler across the gap and on a remarkable journey into K9 Search and Rescue.

SAR Tracking is very unique in the dog world because the Handler must learn to rely and trust completely in his K9 partner. Imagine a sheep herder working his dog. He can at least SEE how his dog was working the herd, but now imagine the sheep are invisible! How would the sheep herder know his dog was working correctly? Well in essence that is exactly what is happening with the SAR K9 team. We trust that our training has been good enough to make a reliable K9 partner who is able to work though the problem that is before it.

Consider the typical K9 SAR callout. It is late at night and raining when the call comes in. When arriving at the scene, at least 50 people have already mucked up the woods wondering around searching and have been doing so for several hours before anyone thought to call the SAR team. Our scent article has been contaminated though improper handling and we may have to resort to letting the K9 take scent off a car door handle or car seat. No one knows what direction the victim may have left the area or how long the victim has been missing, so we are casting our dogs for over a half mile to see if we can locate a track when “WHAM” the K9 suddenly takes off hard into the woods. Do search dogs find their victims in such conditions? YOU BET THEY DO! But the training takes time!

Once the Handler/K9 relationship has been balanced and the dog is excited about working and tracking with his handler, we send the handler out to lay the first track in the woods. When the handler moves out of sight our now motivated K9 will head out to find him using all the skills at his disposal. Usually the K9 will hunt by sight at first, then try to air scent but since we have set the problem up so the K9 will not succeed in that fashion we wait and then all of a sudden our K9 will lower its nose toward the ground to sort out its owners scent for all the other scents out there that day and at the proper point of praise we say “Good Hunt!” and Shazaam we now have a new SAR tracking dog in training! And with a lot of hard work and a lot of tracking time we will have a solid K9 team who is now in service to their community. But make no mistake, to become part of a SAR K9 Team you will have to be willing to learn to read and trust your K9 partner who, at the end of a very long tracking line, is really the only one who can solve the problem you are working. And if you trained correctly, you will find that victim lost out in the woods, but also you may have found something just as wonderful—a new relationship with your dog.

Pros and Cons of Civilian Searchers
One of the greatest advantages to civilian teams is that they spend more time training than their LE counterparts. Due to budget constraints many LE and Fire Safety departments cannot go to seminars or seek out the best instructors as the Civilian teams can. On many searches the civilian responders have taken the lead because of their advanced training.

On the bad side, well we live and die on our creditability and reliability. I cannot tell you all the stories I have heard about the miraculous Bloodhound that tracked the missing girl 7 years after she went missing! I investigated as many of these as I heard and have even paid for demonstration of the dog’s prowess only to be disappointed at the results. I am a person that believes all people start off with the best intentions, but the pressure to be recognized or take on searches that are beyond a person’s ability often reveals character flaws that sorely need to be addressed. Law Enforcement agencies take a big gamble in getting permission to use a civilian team and we at PRSAR take that trust very seriously. All of our teams will have their log books and credentials available for inspection at any time. We constantly work blind and double blind problems so our handlers are the best we can offer. We are prepared and will do a great job on the searches we take on.

With the economy failing and Tax revenues going down, Law Enforcement and Emergency services will be cut back. The need for volunteer SAR people to help fill that gap has never been higher.

With all that being said, I hope you will take the time to look over the entire website. Watch the videos of some of our now retired dog teams and if you have any questions please feel free to contact me at anytime.

See ya out there!
Mike and Dale Hadsell