Snohomish County Search & Rescue K9 Team > Join the K9 Teams

The Snohomish County Volunteer Search and Rescue (SCVSAR) K9 Team is a part of SCVSAR, a not-for-profit (501c3) volunteer organization committed to assisting the Snohomish County Sheriff’s Office in locating lost persons anywhere in the county and rescuing injured persons from the backcountry.

Search and Rescue, though performed by volunteers, and especially as it relates to the K9 Teams, is not a volunteer ‘activity’ in the sense we usually think of it. It is so time consuming as to be better thought of as a ‘lifestyle’, with very significant investment of time and financial resources.

This ’lifestyle’ does offer many opportunities for personal reward and satisfaction such as: working with a group of dog handlers committed to camaraderie and a ‘team philosophy;’ (A “find” is always the result of the team effort, not one individual dog team.), deepening your relationship with a ‘working dog,’ honing your outdoor and mountaineering skills, keeping in shape, and giving back to your community in a meaningful way (helping to save lives). You have the opportunity to increase the overall effectiveness of the K9 Team by sharing the unique skills you bring to the group, whether it is navigation, dog handling, wilderness survival skills, leadership, prior SAR experience, or something else.

The mission of the Snohomish County Volunteer Search and Rescue K9 Teams is to assist the Snohomish County Sheriff’s Office, using volunteer K9 resources, in locating lost persons in an efficient and timely manner. Because the purpose of the training program is to fulfill the mission of finding lost persons, only potential handlers who are sincerely committed to that goal are accepted into official training. The expectation is that the prospective handler will be responding to mission ‘call-outs’ with their SCVSAR Unit, without their K9, prior to certification as a K9 team.

We also all are a part of the overall SAR team effort after we have become certified and help out on missions not requiring K9’s or provide SAR support in other ways. For example, some of our members also belong to Everett Mountain Rescue, the Swift Water team, have specialized rigging training, or other skills that make them a valuable resource on 'non-K9' missions.