The National Search Dog Alliance is a community of K-9 handlers committed to sharing ideas, training, and experiences. NSDA is proud to host periodic seminars and workshops with the intent of bringing in new ideas and training opportunities. The goals are to offer canine handlers from across the country an opportunity to train under experts in the field, develop their skills as searchers, and better the K-9 team who in turn make a positive difference in service to their communities. Whether you are building a foundation for your wilderness dog, preparing for certification, or focusing on advancing your skills for deployment, we welcome ina you to join us!
December 5th — December 7th, 2025: Granbury, Texas. Multi-discipline feld seminar offering instruction in Area/Airscent, Human Remains Detection and Trailing.
Registration opens in August
Gail Collins has been serving in K-9 Search and Rescue since 2005, and has trained, deployed, and certified dogs in multiple disciplines with civilian SAR organizations (OSSA, NSDA, IPWDA). She has served as a K-9 Unit Lead, K-9 training and testing coordinator, and incident commander, and currently holds elected Board positions with search and rescue organizations both locally and nationally. Gail is a SAR K-9 Principal Evaluator for multiple disciplines (OSSA, NSDA), and has multiple certifications in search management. She is the owner of Sunflower K-9 based in Idaho and has been a seminar and workshop instructor since 2014, with a special affinity for real-world problem solving and mentoring SAR K-9 teams.
Gail continues to be deployed on missions and investigations across the West, and has had numerous live finds and recoveries with her canine partners. She has also spent her life in the outdoors and worked as a Wildlife Biologist for over 20 years, specializing in large carnivore research in some of the most remote wilderness of the US. Gail currently is deploying her fourth K-9 partner, “Wyatt”, in human remains detection.
Neil Day is the owner and lead instructor for All Day Dog Adventures based in Montana. He is also an operational member of a SAR unit and K9 team in Flathead Valley, Montana. Neil served with the British Army and was a Police Officer with the Metropolitan Police service in London for fifteen years. Neil has been involved in K9 Search and Rescue since 2009 and since that time has trained and certified three dogs in multiple disciplines. He continues to be operational and deployed on missions across Montana.
Neil and his canines have had multiple finds in both live find and human remains detection. He has been an evaluator for various organizations and is currently an NSDA Principal Evaluator in multiple disciplines. He also has training and leadership roles in various SAR organizations. Neil has been leading and instructing multiple seminars in multiple disciplines throughout the United States since 2018.
Dr. Ben Alexander is the K9 training coordinator at the Forensic Anthropology Center at Texas State. Ben established the program in 2013 under the guidance and oversight of Dr. Daniel Wescott and has successfully coordinated all the seminars since its start.
Ben has spent his lifetime learning the science and art of training through hands on experience. He obtained a bachelor of science degree in animal science then returned to school 14 years later to obtain a master of science degree in animal science: ethology. His master's thesis was on Search Dog Performance and he has one published paper from his research. He obtained his PhD in Dec 2014 in Soil Science, forensic focus and has published two papers on HRD dog capabilities in regards to forensic soils.
Ben has over 40 years of various K9 training experience having also taught obedience classes for over 20 years, assisting with service dog training and testing and training therapy dogs. Ben became involved in search and rescue in 2000. His first nationally certified recovery dog, was a border collie named "Pete" starting in 2003. Ben has partnered with 5 nationally certified partners, all of which have had recoveries on land and water. He has participated in recovery efforts after Hurricanes Katrina and Ike and the memorial day floods of 2015, as well as many drownings and missing person searches across the state of Texas. Ben began teaching HRD classes in 2010, and has taught classes from AZ to NY, specializing in water recovery classes. He has assisted with the FACTS HRD K9 classes since its start in 2013.
Diana Bunch retired from a distinguished military career in the US Air Force, achieving the rank of Chief Master Sergeant (E-9). Her journey in search and rescue began in 1998, inspired by her service in the military. Diana now serves as the President of Legacy K9 Search Team and has played pivotal roles including Operations Chief, Strike Team Leader, K9 Trainer, and K9 Handler with the KlaasKIDS Regional Search Team. Her previous SAR engagements include memberships with Colorado K9 Search and Rescue and Montgomery Search and Rescue.
Throughout her career, Diana has been deployed over 200 times to assist local, state and federal agencies. She has received numerous accolades for her search and rescue efforts, including the 2022 Civilian Service Medal from the Escambia County Sheriff's Office and being named Volunteer of the Year by the KlaasKIDS Foundation in both 2020 and 2019.
Diana holds a Level II Search Technician certification from the National Association for Search and Rescue. She has trained numerous canines throughout her SAR career in area search, trailing, and human remains detection, and she currently maintains two certified K9s in Human Remains Detection.
Tiffanie Turner has over 40 years of experience working with behavior modification. She has used learning theory and behavior modification to train horses, cats, dogs, pigs and chickens. Honing her skills at observation and understanding the scent detection dog, she has successfully selected and trained several HRD dogs for wilderness and urban search and recovery missions, as well as trained dogs for conservation work to detect invasive or endangered species of plants and animals. She obtained her degree from Texas A&M University, College of Biomedical Science where she now works imaging hoof stock and teaching 4th year vet students techniques in safety and imaging.
Tiffanie began her SAR career with a border collie mix named "Fanta" who would go on to be recognized as the National Association for Search and Rescue's K9 of the year in 2010 for her outstanding work on multiple recoveries and incredible working ability. She has trained and certified dogs for national certifications in wilderness HRD with: NNDDA, NASAR, NAPWDA and currently fields a FEMA disaster Live find K9 "Croc-it" and has retired her FEMA HRD disaster K9 “Fetchit”. Tiffanie participated in the recovery efforts for hurricane Ike and the Memorial Day floods of 2015, California wildfires as well as many missing person searches.
With her outstanding patience and commitment to the dog's success she has helped many handlers and canines overcome hurdles and improve their partnership and overall performance. Tiffanie has taught HRD classes at seminars from AZ to NY and has aided many handlers in starting their HRD dogs on odor as well as challenged the advanced K9 teams and improved overall performance with her insight and troubleshooting abilities. Tiffanie's experience and dedication has help make the Forensic Anthropology Center at Texas State University HRD K9 seminars an amazingly successful seminar since the start of 2013.
Corbin Hodge is a K9 Handler and Instructor for East Texas Search and Rescue and United States Mantrailing Association. Corbin has worked major cases of Federal escapees, homicides and various lost and missing persons and works with law enforcement at National, State and Local levels. Corbin has worked bloodhounds for 25 years and has taught over 100 mantrailing K-9 all breed seminars across the nation.
Mark Holmes with a thirty-nine year career in Law Enforcement, has been a Detective in the Criminal Investigations Division for the last 27 years and is assigned to Homicide/Cold Case Homicide of the Jefferson County, TX Sheriff's Office. Mark also holds the Master Peace Officer Certification from the State of Texas. He became a Law Enforcement K-9 handler in 1994. As a K-9 handler, he has been called upon to assist the F.B.I., U.S. Marshall's Office, U.S. State Department, The U.S. Department of the Interior - National Park Service, the United States Consulates Office, the Mexican Consulates Office, National Aeronautic Space Administration (NASA - Space Shuttle Disaster), and Texas Department of Criminal Justice - Office of the Inspector General.
Mark has also worked numerous canine related mantrailing cases throughout Texas, Louisiana, Georgia, and Florida including federal and state prison escapes. As a K-9 Handler, he is recognized as an Expert Witness in both Texas and Louisiana Judicial Court Systems. He is a nationally recognized canine mantrailing instructor and Founded and is the President of both Texas Bloodhound Search and Rescue and the United States Mantrailing Association. Mark has taught well over 100 canine mantrailing seminars/ courses throughout the United States and has authored/co-authored numerous training articles relating to canine mantrailing and scent specific canine training.
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