Volunteers:

Sarasota K-9 Search and Rescue, Inc. reach out to volunteers that our committed and dedicated for the purpose of serving our community and the state. Volunteers come from all walks of life and bring a wealth of important knowledge and dedication to accomplish the goals of bringing the lost home. There are many important roles that need to be filled in running a search and rescue team. The first is the canine handler who will be in training for themselves and for their canine. We have a strict canine training program where trainers will evaluate your dog, then if accepted; the trainers will train you to work your canine to meet all testing criteria for deployment purposes. This takes a lot of time, patience, and perseverance on the handler’s part to succeed in the program. There are also observer positions for each canine team, which takes time to learn all search tactics and operations so you can be the extra set of eyes for the handlers. All personnel are trained in land navigation, map and compass so you know how to maneuver in the woods, wildland urban interface and urban areas to keep search teams in there appointed areas. There are also base camp positions for communications, documentation and safety to run SAR training and deployments without incident. All members of the team need to be physically fit as well as the canines. The work is hard and deployments may go on for hours, or days in order to get the job done.

The volunteer will experience working with different agencies under the Incident Command System. All volunteer SSAR members are professional and take their duty to serve as an All Risk First Response Team. All members are on duty seven days a week and twenty-four hours a day at a moment’s notice.  The volunteer’s payment is serving and bringing a family’s loved one home. The volunteer will experience the growing bond of working with a canine partner and enjoy the family atmosphere of a team that prides itself on professionalism and leadership. If you were interested in becoming a volunteer with Sarasota K-9 Search and Rescue Team we would love to hear from you. Please use this website to enter a query and we will call you and answer all your questions. After the phone conversation and if you are still interested please fill out an application and mail it to our PO Box.  We hope that that we hear from you soon.

Pat Abrams

Team Leader and President

Sarasota K-9 Search and Rescue Team