King County Search Dogs finds and aids people in distress in rugged forests, residential neighborhoods and natural disasters. KCSD is 100% volunteer and has been on call 24/7, 365 days a year for over 20 years working with the King County Sheriff's Office to find missing persons such as hikers or Alzheimers patients. Dogs undergo years of training to rigorous national standards in airscent, trailing, avalanche, disaster, and cadaver work.

Background: King County Search Dogs, a unit of King County Search & Rescue, has responded to over 1,000 missions since 1997. KCSD dogs can reliably follow the day-old trail of a specific missing person for miles even in busy urban environments and are able to locate lost or injured hikers in large expanses of rugged northwest forest. King County Search Dogs have been a critical resource in natural disaster responses such as the 2014 Oso mudslide tragedy and specially-trained KCSD dogs regularly assist law enforcement investigations and help to bring closure in wilderness and urban recovery operations.

King County Search Dogs train to a professional, national certification standard. This requires hundreds of hours annually by each member and totaled 5,736 hours for the unit in 2019! It takes eighteen months or more of training several times a week to develop an effective airscent or trailing dog. Continued training is then required to pass periodic re-certification tests. In order to comply with the demanding core competency standards of the King County Search and Rescue Association, members also undergo extensive training and testing in areas such as wilderness navigation, search & rescue techniques, radio communication, crime scene management, helicopter safety and searcher survival. Many KCSD members are respected search dog experts who teach throughout the northwest and around the world. KCSD also has an active outreach program to promote personal safety in the wilderness and raise awareness of our activities.

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King County Search Dogs

King County Search Dogs' headquarters in Bellevue, United States

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Linda Holden

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