About Mary
Mary looks on while Gunny learns to ride the snowmobile at Powder Mountain
Mary grew up with hunting dogs in the woods of Northern Minnesota. Her Dad was an avid duck and upland game bird hunter. At the age of 9 she began training dogs as a 4-H project. Throughout her school years she trained several dogs, one of which she trained for hunting and field trialing. She also competed in local obedience and AKC obedience trials.
After she moved to Montana in 1981 she shifted gears and breeds. She acquired a German Shepherd or 2, and trained with local trainers in the Bozeman, MT area. Throughout the next several years she competed with her dogs in obedience.
In 1994 while living in Prescott, Arizona and working at the Yavapai County Sheriff’s Office she began training her personal dog for Search & Rescue (SAR). Her first SAR dog was a long haired Rottweiler named Nora. Nora was a great dog, learned fast and was very forgiving of the mistakes she made with her.
Since that time Mary has trained several personal dogs to operational status for Wilderness-air scent, Avalanche rescue/recovery, Drowning recovery, Human Remains Detection and Evidence Detection. In 2008 she certified Casey as a FEMA disaster dog, to the FEMA Disaster Standards in Irvine, CA. She is currently training her new partner, Yogi, a black labrador to take Casey’s place.
Mary also served as a volunteer on the Powder Mountain Ski Patrol in Ogden, Utah. She and her German Shepherd, Phoenix, were there each weekend providing medical support to injured skiers. Phoenix was a great Ambassador on the hill and the folks on the mountain felt a little more comfortable knowing that there was a Search Dog on site.
Currently Mary is a K9 handler with Alamo Area Search & Rescue based out of San Antonio. AASAR serves the San Antonio area as well as many surrounding counties. She is also a member of the International Police Work Dog Association (IPWDA) and was added as a SAR Instructor and Assistant Evaluator within that organization in October of 2011. Mary has trained and certified Jetta, her Belgian Malinois, to IPWDA Advanced Cadaver, Underwater Human Remains Detection and Evidence standards. She has also certified Prada, her German Shepherd, to IPWDA Basic Cadaver and Underwater Human Remains Detection standards.
