Meet DFD’s K9 and Handler Tracking Teams

DFD Team:
K9 Heidi and Anne

Meet Heidi and Anne.

Heidi is a German Shepherd with just a splash of Labrador! She has an incredible nose and drive to perform searches for pets, people and objects. Along a search track she locates and downs on articles that a person or pet has dropped.

Anne and Heidi have successfully tracked both pets and people. She has also earned citations from the Governor of Maryland and Anne Arundel County for assisting our local police.

Heidi is extremely friendly and gets along beautifully with dogs! All dogs are her friends, whether they want to be or not.

Heidi was the founding K9 for Dogs Finding Dogs. She crossed the Rainbow Bridge in late 2015. We all miss her very much.

K9 Heidi’s Hero’s Foundation Heavenly Sent Help assists those whose pet has passed over the rainbow bridge and also assist those with pets that have cancer.

K9_Teams_Heidi

DFD Team:
K9 Gretel and Anne

Meet K9 Gretel and Anne.

K9 Gretel comes from the National Tactical Police Dog Associations breeding program.

The president of Dogs Finding Dogs runs this certifying and training center.  She was sent up to Maryland as a 8 week old puppy and has been tracking ever since.

K9 Gretel is a German Shepherd from great working dog lines.  K9 Gretel is very sweet and sometimes overly friendly.

She has also learned her tracking by going out on tracks with our founder dog K9 Heidi.  Gretel has tremendous energy and drive.  She loves to work.  She has been raised with 6 cats and K9 Heidi.

We are pleased to have her as an addition to our teams.

Gretel was featured on Disney+ It’s a Dog’s Life and National Geographic’s Trackers.

K9_Teams_Gretel

DFD Team:
K9 Lessa and Mary

Meet Lessa and Mary. 

Lessa is a German Shepherd. She has a incredible nose and drive to perform searches for pets, people and objects. Along a search track she locates and downs on articles that a person or pet has dropped.

She has successfully tracked dogs and people. Tracking is her favorite job! She gets very excited and vocal when the tracking gear comes out!

Lessa has been awarded her AKC CGC and her Schutzhund BH. Lessa is a rescue dog from our local MidAtlantic German Shepherd Rescue.

She is one of the DFD founding K9s. Lessa crossed the Rainbow Bridge on Memorial Day, 2016. She and Heidi are helping lost pets from the other side now.

K9_Teams_Lessa

DFD Team:
K9 Maggie and John

Meet Maggie and John.

Maggie is a German Shepherd that loves tracking and obedience work.

Two of Maggie’s grandparents were search and rescue dogs and many of her kinfolk are police dogs and work in other capacities; so as Hank Jr. might sing, she is simply following a family tradition.

We knew Maggie was destined to look for lost pets when she found her neighbor “Snoopy,” a Beagle who had run away from home. Within 30 minutes Maggie took us to the back yard of the person who had found Snoopy and he was reunited with his family.

John has owned and trained Germans Shepherds most of his life and enjoys working with dogs. Maggie has her AKC CGC and her Schutzhund BH. She continues to train at Arrowwood Shepherds.

K9_Teams_Maggie

DFD Team:
K9 Tucker and Sherry

Meet Tucker and Sherry.

Sherry has been with DFD for many years working Intake and our Home By Phone program. When Tucker joined us, she stepped into the handler role and has been very successful teaming with Tucker to find lost pets.

K9 Tucker is a Labrador Retriever with a very strong drive to work. He came to DFD from Tarheel K9, the National Tactical Police Dog Association. He has the sweetest disposition and loves his job finding lost pets.

K9_Teams_Tucker

DFD Team:
K9 Riley and Holly

Meet Riley and Holly.

K9 Riley came from a rescue situation. He is a German Shepherd whose nickname is Marmaduke. He is very tall and long and is one of the sweetest dogs.

K9 Riley is very pet friendly and has been raised with other dogs, cats and farm animals.

Holly and K9 Riley have been successfully working together for over 4 years. Holly also is experienced in training SAR dogs thru our DFD program.

Working the WV/VA area, this team has helped many pets get home safely.

K9_Teams_Riley

DFD Team:
K9 Jake and Tim

Meet K9 Jake and Tim.

Jake is a Black and Tan Coonhound.  He came from a kill shelter in Parkersburg, WV and was brought to a rescue in Phoenix, MD. where he was adopted by Tim. Tim discovered that Jake had a nose for tracking when he did it for fun a few times after his obedience classes.

Jake has success tracking both dogs and cats.  He is known for his endurance and stamina

While Jake can do all types of tracks, his breed is built for rural tracks where the animal being searched has covered a lot of ground.

Jake loves to work and reunite owners with their pets.

Tim and Jake were featured on National Geographic’s Trackers.

K9_Teams_Jake

DFD Team:
K9 Scipio and Clementine

Meet K9 Scipio and Clementine.

Scipio is a Belgian Malinois who, true to his breed, loves to work. After a number of wins in AKC obedience and rally trials and because of his eagerness to please, Clementine felt it was time to become helpful.

Clementine, with a PhD in Anthropology, studies therapy work with animals in the US, Germany, Russia, and Japan.

Scipio loves sniffing out locations of lost pets.

In his spare time, he works as a certified therapy dog and continues to compete in AKC trials.

Scipio resides with his rescued buddies, Rosie (Miniature Dachshund) and Boo (Australian Shepherd).

Clementine and Scipio were featured on National Geographic’s Trackers.

K9_Teams_Scipio

DFD Team:
K9 Bolo and Bruno

Meet K9 Bolo and Bruno.

Bruno began his journey 8 years ago in animal welfare starting at The Maryland SPCA, then moved up to becoming an Animal Control Officer/ Cruelty Investigator with The Baltimore City Animal Control Division. Bruno is also an active member of NACA (National Animal Care & Control Association), as well as a National Field Responder with the ASPCA.

K9 Bolo is Belgian Malinois who has come to DFD from Tarheel K9, the National Tactical Police Dog Association.  His tracking abilities are intense and very accurate.  K9 Bolo also has one of the sweetest dispositions.  DFD also has his brother, K9 Ragar, working for us.

We are very excited to have this team on board with DFD.

K9_Teams_Bolo

DFD Team:
K9 Ragar and Corinne

Meet K9 Ragar and Corinne.

Corinne became interested in Lost Pet search after her cat Izzy disappeared.  Corinne was determined to minimize the hopelessness that pet parents feel when their family member goes missing, and the rest is history.

K9 Ragar is a Belgian Malinois.  One of our other tracking dogs is K9 Ragar’s brother, K9 Bolo.  He came to DFD from Tarheel K9, the National Tactical Police Dog Association. His tracking abilities are nose to the ground and very accurate.  He has the kindest heart and the sweetest disposition.

We are very excited to have this team on board with DFD.

K9_Teams_Ragar

DFD Team:
K9 Bond and Kathleen

Meet K9 Bond and Kathleen.

Bond is a gentle, eager to please, sable German shepherd Kathleen secured locally as a puppy.  Bond earned his BH, 2 obedience and 3 tracking titles in Schutzhund/IPO, as well as his AKC CGC, CGCA, and TC.  We continue to train today as a team in nosework/scentwork, adding to his abilities to use his incredible nose

He loves to work and having accomplished the goals set for him in Schutzhund, Kathleen decided it was time to put his skills to work giving back. They look forward to getting out there to find your lost pets.

It is with a heavy heart that we have to say goodbye to Bond who crossed over the rainbow bridge in 2023. Kathy continues their work with DFD by working the Found By Phone program.

Kathleen and Bond were featured on Disney+ It’s a Dog’s Life.

K9_Teams_Bond

DFD Team:
K9 Joey and Maya

Meet K9 Joey and Maya.

Joey is a Golden Retriever full of energy with a very strong drive to work. Maya acquired Joey in Kentucky while she was working on her Equine Science and Management degree.

K9 Joey loves just about everyone and everything and loves tracking lost pets.

In his spare time, Joey loves to compete in various dog sports but you can always count on finding him on a dock doing dock-diving when he isn’t working.

We are pleased to have this talented team on board with DFD.

K9_Teams_Joey

DFD Team:
K9 Vahli and Bash

Meet K9 Vahli and Bash.

Vahli was surrendered to the Maryland SPCA in critical condition when he was 3 months old. Bash, who has over 2 decades of Vet Tech and shelter experience, immediately took him in to foster. After being nursed back to health, Bash adopted this loveable GoldenDoodle.

Vahli took quickly to training and during that process he unexpectedly found a lost kitten. It became clear that Vahli wants nothing more than to help others and save pets

Bash joined the DFD team in early 2022 and is a Red Rover 1st responder for the state of Maryland. Bash can also be seen working K9 Bolo.

We are pleased to have this talented team on board with DFD.

K9_Teams_Vahli

DFD Team:
K9 Mina LaRue and Nikki

Meet K9 Mina LaRue and Nikki.

Nikki is a lifelong animal lover who’s dedication to the human-animal bond led them to want to help bring lost pets home.

After working with husband Bash to train K9 Vahli, they have made finding lost pets a family passion and adopted Mina LaRue, a sassy and opinionated Dutch shepherd-malinois from the SPCA. While Mina is still in training, Nikki also tracks with K9 Vahli.

Nikki also does community outreach on social media for DFD during the week and is very proud to be a tracker!

DFD is pleased to have this talented and versatile team on board.

K9_Teams_Mina

DFD Team:
K9 Zero and Terry

Meet K9 Zero and Terry.

Zero was originally acquired as a family pet, but he proved his nose work ability over and over again leading Terry to look for a job where Zero could use his nosework ability.

Working in the animal field for 10+ years, Terry first learned about Dogs Finding Dogs when one of their K9s happened to be her favorite patient in the Vet’s office. Seeing that Zero was born to be much more than a fluff ball of joy, she decided to take the leap and with the guidance of DFD, trained Zero for Search and Rescue.

Outside of SAR you can find Zero romping and rolling with his favorite three kids on the family farm.

DFD is fortunate to have this team on board.

K9_Teams_Zero

Join the Dogs Finding Dogs Tracking Teams

We are actively recruiting dog & handler teams

We have a few requirements:

  • Proof of AKC Canine Good Citizenship (CGC) certificate
  • Basic Obedience Training (minimum)
  • 1+ year of Professional Tracking Training Preferred (will evaluate other dogs)
  • Proof of all immunizations
  • Evaluation of tracking by Dogs Finding Dogs
  • Flexibility. We cannot anticipate when we are called out.

If you fill the requirements above, please contact us!  We host tracking training and evaluations so if you believe you are a good candidate, contact us to learn how you can get started.

PHONE (410) 908-6374   E-MAIL  [email protected]