American Rettungshunde Sport Association

Liz has been active in search and rescue since 2009 and started testing in RH in 2011. 

She has titled 3 dogs under the RH: 

• RH-F-E (x2): 2011: K9 Bonnie and K9 Lexa

• RH-FL-E (x1): 2011: K9 Bonnie

• RH-F-A (x1): 2013: K9 Bonnie 

• RH-T-A (x1): 2015: K9 Leon

 

She has also titled K9 Bonnie through IPO-Fpr levels 1-3 (2013) and certified K9 Lexa in man trailing through the International Police Work Dog Association (IPWDA).  K9 Leon has also been airscent area certified under IPWDA in 2017 and 2020 and rubble certified via National Search Dog Alliance (NSDA) in 2017, 2019 and 2021. Her most recent focus has been working in human remains detection and she currently has certified 4 canines: K9 Zostan, K9 Sonnet and K9 Gryphon (all IPWDA certified HR area and crime scene) and K9 Mika - her newest dog in HR area only. K9 Zostan is also
NSDA certified for HR rubble. She is one of three training directors for the Massachusetts Canine Response Team-a 501(c)3 organization and a member of the Massachusetts Search and Rescue Dog Federation (MASSARDF). She is a past
founder of Search Dog Organization of North America (SDONA); an ongoing member of Canine Alert Search Teams (CAST)—one of only 2 IRO Member Organizations in the US; and the founder and president of Canine Search Initiative—a 501(c)3 organization focused on bringing quality detection training opportunities to K9 handlers—be they law enforcement, SAR or for sport applications (RH / nose work). In 2020, she was one of the first set of trainers to be certified by Ivan Balabanov in his Training without Conflict program (2020).  

 

She enjoys coaching teams and figuring out how best to bring out the desired behavior in each individual K9 team. Her training style is balanced—based first in motivation and reward but also applying techniques to assure clarity in understanding. For scent work, she strives to make the environment the teacher through the use of careful set-ups and an awareness of odor behavior.