Tentative Instructor Placement
Additions and adjustments will be made once registration is underway and class sizes are known.
Mantrailing
- Ellen Ponall
- Steve Wald
- Robin Walker
- Dan Woodruff
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Cadaver Detection
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Air Scent
- Mary Helinski
- Mary Lehman
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- John Beck
John has used his Cadaver Detection Dogs on numerous searches for many local, state and federal law enforcement agencies in Nebraska and the midwest. In addition to training his own dogs, John serves as a trainer and judge for Midwest Canine Alternatives and has served as an instructor for NASDN and other organizations. John was the Nebraska Coalition for Victims of Crime's Volunteer of the Year in 2004 and received the Lincoln Police Department's Certificate of Merit in 2008. When John is not working with dogs, he earns his living as a filmmaker.
- Susan Bronder
Susan wrote, "Canine Training Capture". CTC is a Windows-based electronic journal to capture training activities and remind handlers how important it is to record training activities. Susan has been designing software programs for medical and industrial clients for since 1990; now she has designed something for herself and other search and rescue canine handlers to encourage record keeping by making it easy and somewhat fun.
- Dr. Susan Fife
Dr. Fife was born and raised in Florida. She received her veterinary medical degree from the University of Florida in 1996. She worked in a small animal private practice in Bolingbrook, IL before starting her studies in veterinary acupuncture and veterinary spinal manipulative therapy (chiropractic) in 1999. The last few years Dr. Fife has had a strictly acupuncture, chiropractic practice in Northern Illinois. She has a passion for teaching the importance of a Conditioning Program for all Canine Athletes.
- Mary Helinski
Mary retired from active duty Navy as a Commander in the Civil Engineer Corps. Since then she has devoted her life to working with dogs. She has held numerous leadership positions in Golden Retriever Rescue of Wisconsin. She has trained over 50 people in conducting behavioral assessments on dogs, and conducted over 150 assessments herself. She has fostered 29 dogs, most with serious medical and/or behavioral challenges and assisted numerous other foster homes with their dogs. She started SAR work because obedience and agility training were not enough of a job for her K9 partner Buddy. As a team, they have certified in mantrailing, area search (both scent specific and non scent specific), and land HRD through North American Search Dog Network (NASDN). She has also assisted as a NASDN instructor in all three specialties, is their fundraising coordinator and a Board member. She has also trained with Jerry Yelk, High Country Canine, and Law Enforcement Training Specialists (LETS). She is NASAR SARTECH II certified and has some vet tech training.
- Mary Lehman
Mary has worked with several different SAR organizations in Arizona, Utah, Wyoming, Idaho, Montana, New Mexico and Texas since 1994. She has helped train and evaluate hundreds of SAR dogs from around the nation. She has trained and certified her personal SAR dogs in the following disciplines: Airscent-Live, Human Remains, Avalanche, Water, Evidence and Disaster. Currently, her Belgian Malinois, Jetta, is IPWDA certified in Advanced Land Cadaver, HR Underwater Detection and Evidence. Her GSD, Prada, is IPWDA certified in Basic Land Cadaver and HR Underwater Detection. She is training her new Black Lab, Yogi, for Disaster-Live and is a Canine Search Specialist with Texas Task Force 1. She is also currently a member of Alamo Area Search & Rescue in the San Antonio area. At the IPWDA Nationals in October 2011 she was accepted as an official SAR Instructor with that organization. Mary also owns her own Dog Training and K9 Kinesthetics business in the New Braunfels, TX area.
- Lara McCormick
Lara is a Ph.D. candidate at the Ohio State University in Anthropology with an emphasis in forensic anthropology. She completed her undergraduate degree in Anthropology at Arizona State University and a Master's in Anthropology at California State University, Los Angeles. While a master's student, she was a fellow at the Los Angeles County Department of Coroner. Before entering the doctoral program at OSU, she was a pre-doctoral fellow at the Smithsonian Institution Museum of Natural History. She was a Visiting Scientist at the New York City Office of Chief Medical Examiner in 2009 and in 2010 was a Fellow at the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command at Hickam AFB in Hawaii. She was a co-founder of the Forensic Anthropology Case Team with OSUs Department of Anthropology in 2005.
- Ellen Ponall
Ellen has been working hounds since 1972 in Mantrailing both for SAR and Law Enforcement. She breeds Bloodhounds and has also worked a Malinois in land and water Cadaver Detection. Ellen is President and Trainer of MidWest K-9, ERT. She is also an EMT B for Paw Paw FD., on Sycamore PD Auxilary and is a Member of: National Police Bloodhound Association, USPCA, NAPWDA and the American Bloodhound Club.
She has trained Hounds for several Police Departments and SAR throught the US.
- Steve Wald
Steve has trained general purpose police patrol dogs for fifteen years,
three German Shepherds and one Malinois. In 1991 he started training Bloodhounds.
He and his Bloodhounds live in Austin, Minnesota and have been used by numerous Law
Enforcement Agencies in a four state area and many area Search and Rescue teams. In addition to
being a trainer with NASDN, Steve is a trainer with the National Police Bloodhound Association and a member of the United States Police Canine Association.
- Robin Walker
Robin has been a Bloodhound owner for 22 years. She has been member of NASDN for ten years and has instructed for eight. Robin has been involved as a SAR volunteer for a dozen years and has responded to hundreds of searches throughout the midwest. She currently currently works a Bloodhound in both live and cadaver searches.
- Dan Woodruff
Dan's bio is coming soon.
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