K9 Agenda
Registration will go live at 8 am Sunday, 3/8/2026.
New for this year there will be 4 tracks for registration!
- Air Scent – Gail Collings – 6 spaces
- Trailing – Amity Larsen – 6 spaces
- HRD – Lisa Higgins, Heather Lum & Mark Paquette – 15 spaces
- Area/Cadaver – Neil Day – 8 spaces
Prepare for the Seminar
We are excited to expand to four specialized K9 tracks this year! To ensure a seamless experience for you and your K9 partner, please review the resources below. It is essential that all handlers familiarize themselves with the full-page content to stay informed about safety protocols and scheduling.
Included on this page:
Class Schedule: Review the daily itinerary for all four disciplines.
K9 Participant Requirements & Rules: Crucial information on leash policies, vaccination records, and staging.
Instructor Bios: Meet your 2026 lead instructors: Neil Day (Area/Cadaver), Gail Collins (Air Scent), Amity Larsen (Trailing), and Lisa Higgins (HR).
Housing Information: Important details regarding K9-friendly lodging and site rules.
Mandatory Action Item: All participants must bring their SAR Taskbooks for instructor sign-offs. Additionally, after you register, look for a pre-conference questionnaire that must be returned at least one week before the start of the conference.
Class Schedule
Wed. April 29, 2026
All Day Classes 0800 – 1700
K9 Conference
- Air Scent
- Trailing
- HRD
- Area/Cadaver
Thurs. April 30, 2026
All Day Classes 0800 – 1700
K9 Conference
- Air Scent
- Trailing
- HRD
- Area/Cadaver
Fri. May 1, 2026
AM Classes 0800 – 1200
K9 Conference
- Air Scent
- Trailing
- HRD
- Area/Cadaver
PM Classes 1300 – 1700
- K9 Medical Care: 2 hours – 1300 – 1500
- K9 Helo: 2 hours – 1300 – 1500
- K9 Medical Care: 2 hours 1500 – 1700
- K9 Helo: – 2 Hours – 1500- 1700
- or any regular SARCON Class (please see Agenda page)
K9 Participant Requirements & Rules
Welcome to the K9 portion of the Search and Rescue Convention! To ensure a safe and productive environment for all teams, please review the following guidelines:
Registration & Attendance
One Dog per Handler: Teams must work with the same dog for the duration of the seminar. If you have multiple dogs, please select one for the event.
Single Discipline Track: Handlers must choose one discipline track and remain with that discipline for the entirety of the seminar.
Auditing will be allowed, however if auditing, you dog CANNOT come to the discipline track you are auditing
Pre-Conference Questionnaire: A questionnaire will be sent to you after registration. This must be completed and returned to your instructor at least one week prior to the conference.
Health & Safety
Vaccinations: All dogs must be up to date on vaccinations. Please bring physical or digital vaccination records with you.
Unaltered Dogs: Intact dogs are permitted; however, please notify staff in advance so instructors can manage the problem order (especially if a female is in heat).
Helicopter Class: If you are participating in the K9 helicopter class, a muzzle is required. Eye and ear protection are highly recommended.
On-Site Conduct
Leash Policy: Dogs must be on-lead at all times on camp property unless they are actively working a problem.
Control: Handlers must maintain control of their dogs at all times. Dogs should not approach or play with other K9 participants.
Staging: When not working, dogs must be safely confined or controlled within their handler’s vehicle.
Marking & Rewards: * If your dog is prone to marking, please use belly bands or other management tools.
If using food rewards, ensure no food is dropped in the problem area to avoid distracting other teams.
Required & Recommended Gear
SAR Taskbooks: Please bring your taskbooks for instructor sign-off.
Helicopter Class: A muzzle is required for any dog participating in the helicopter session. Eye and ear protection are highly recommended.
Kennel
Instructors
Gail Collins
Gail Collins has been serving in K-9 Search and Rescue since 2005, and has trained, deployed, and certified multiple dogs in multiple disciplines with civilian SAR organizations (OSSA, NSDA, IPWDA). She has served as a K-9 Unit Lead, K-9 training and evaluation 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 (OSSA, NSDA) and has been an instructor since 2014 with a special affinity for real-world problem solving and mentoring 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 in Human Remains Detection.
Amity Larsen
I am Amity Larsen; a professional working and pet dog trainer located in Idaho. I am the owner/trainer at The Good Shepherd K9 Training, established in 2014 as well as the co-owner and handler/instructor at Precision K9 Detection. I have been a SAR K9 handler since 2016 and am the K9 Lead with the Lewis County Sheriff’s Office Search and Rescue.
I began working with detection dogs in earnest in 2012. I certified my first tracking/trailing dog in 2017 with IPWDA. Since that time, I have certified multiple dogs with IPWDA, NSDA as well as with Idaho POST. I have certified dogs for tracking/trailing, HRD, Area Live Find, Evidence recovery and narcotics.
I began instructing in 2018 and have been traveling to provide training and instruction frequently over the last few years.
Lisa Higgins
Lisa is a certified NASAR SARTECH II, a Canine SAR Tech III. She has been in law enforcement since 1978. She started with Pearl River P.D. as a mounted officer and has completed her thirty year run with St. Tammany Sheriff’s Office mounted as well as SAR canine. She was in the Special Operations Division from 1991 through 2008.
Higgins is co-founder of LaSAR and is a member of NSDA, serving on the advisory board. Lisa qualified as a “Subject Matter Expert” in canine body recovery in New Orleans Criminal Courts. Higgins is a member of the Federal DMORT Region VI Team, Louisiana and Texas State Mass Fatalities Taskforce and serves as a civilian contractor with the FBI on the Victim Recovery Team.
She has co-authored several articles and a book chapter on water search and recovery.
Neil Day
Neil has been involved in the Training of dogs for over seventeen years, including Search and Rescue K9’s. Starting in the UK where he was an operational handler for over ten years with NSARDA and a national assessor helping in the training and certifying of multiple dogs on various teams around the UK.
He moved to Flathead Valley, Montana, USA in 2018, with his family and owns All Day Dog Adventures. He trains dogs full time, including Basic Obedience, Behavioral modification, Scent work, Tracking & trailing and the SAR disciplines of Live Find Air scent, HRD, Tracking and Trailing.
He is still an operational SAR handler with dogs currently certified in Air scent, HRD, Tracking and trailing through NAPWDA and NSDA.
Neil is an NSDA Evaluator in Air scent, Trailing and HRD.
Over the last 7 years he has taught multiple SAR K9 seminars all over the country including Alaska, Texas, Idaho, Washington, Montana, Arizona, Missouri, South Carolina, Southern California, Pennsylvania, Utah.
When not working K9’s you will find Neil in the backcountry hiking, camping, and skiing Big Mountain with his family and dogs.
Heather Lum
Heather Lum has been a k9 handler for 17 years. She currently works with K9 Cash, who is certified as a crime-scene cadaver dog through IPWDA and NASAR, and with K9 Zeke, who is training to become certified in human remains detection. She has experience in a variety of search disciplines, including area, trailing, and HRD. Additionally, Heather has been a NASAR instructor and evaluator (SARTECH II, I, and K9 SARTECH) for over 10 years, as well as an AKC CGC evaluator and Wilderness First Aid instructor.
Heather’s day job is as a professor at Arizona State, where she has taught courses in animal behavior and cognition, and also researches human-animal team models for more effective human autonomous robot teams. Heather currently serves as training supervisor for Yavapai County Sheriff’s Office Search Dog Unit as well as Subject Matter Expert for the city of Scottsdale Fire Department K9 SAR unit.
Mark Paquette
Mark Paquette is a K9 Handler for FIRST Detection K9. His current partner is K9 Breicne, who specializes in Historic and Archeological search in addition to cold case search. He has been active in K9 Search and Rescue for over 20 years and has experience in a variety of search disciplines including Area Search, Water Search, Evidence Search, and Human Remains Detection. Mark is active with FIRST Detection K9 in these areas as well as providing logistical support and planning (Head Wrangler) for the Forensic Anthropology Center at Texas State (FACTS) K9 seminars.
Mark is also a K9 Handler, search coordinator, and current president of Southwest Rescue Dogs inc., a nonprofit 501c3 based in Tucson, Az. Additionally, Mark is a board member of the Search and Rescue Council Inc. (SARCI), the parent organization of Search and Rescue assets in the Pima County (Tucson) area.
Housing
K9 Dorms
K9 dorm housing is available in separate men’s and women’s cabins. Each cabin includes twin-size bunk beds with a mattress.
Restrooms and showers are in bathhouse-style buildings near the center of Loma Vista Village, positioned between the cabin areas for easy access.
Bring your own:
- kennel,
- bedding,
- pillows,
- towels,
- toiletries.
Recommended:
- shower shoes,
- a bathroom caddy,
- an extra blanket to place under the mattress (to add comfort and help minimize noise from the waterproof mattress cover).