About Us

The handlers of the Iowa SAR K9 Coalition are professionals who strive daily to better themselves. We take seriously the trust that law enforcement agencies and families put into our K9 teams and are committed to deploying certified, mission ready K9 teams across the state of Iowa. We deploy out of state by request of K9 mutual aid. 

 

Certification is done through the Alliance for Emergency Response Instructors and Examiners, the North American Police Work Dog Association, and the National Network of Canine Detection Services.

 

During the certification process the K9 handlers undergo extensive professional training in incident management, crime scene preservation, search strategy, first aid/CPR, and more. The certifications completed by the teams on the Iowa SAR K9 coalition meet the current standards of the Scientific Working Group on Dog and Orthogonal Detector Guidelines, which is considered the gold standard for training standards and is recognized as so in court proceedings.

 

In the commitment to providing highly trained, mission ready K9s, the handlers routinely travel to seminars conducted by nationally recognized leaders in K9 detection. Examples of seminars include detecting human remains in water, clandestine graves and historical burials, forensic crime scene detection, and courtroom preparation. The handlers prepare themselves and their K9s for a variety of types of searches.

​

The coalition of handlers regularly works with instructors from The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, the National Canine Facility, Legacy K9 (formerly the Klaas Kids Foundation/Called2Rescue), HRD Specialized K9 Training, Inc. and the International Bloodhound Trailing Institute.