"Training the Trusted Canine"

Training Consultant/ Instructor

Mary-Ann Warren

Mary-Ann Warren has been working with dogs for over 29 years in various forms. She has trained her own dogs in protection, upland bird hunting, obedience, tracking and search. Since 1994, Mary-Ann has provided a trained and reliable canine resource in the profiles of lost person, water, human remains and disaster search for the organization the Search and Rescue Dog Association of Alberta®.

Amongst her accomplishments, Mary-Ann was the first female civilian to pass a RCMP civilian tracking dog certification in Alberta, Canada; as well she was the first civilian to be invited to work with the Canadian USAR Task Force II team based out of Calgary.

In 1999, Mary-Ann became the Training Director with the Search & Rescue Dog Association of Alberta®. She changed how training was done and provides structured training not only for the dogs but also for the handlers.

  • Instruction for handlers in canine scent, wilderness/urban, water, human remains, and disaster search theory
  • Training the individual canine/handler teams in obedience, tracking, wilderness/urban, disaster, water, human remains in a systematically progressive structured atmosphere
  • Evaluating the levels of achievements of the canine/handler teams
  • Development of theory courses pertaining to Search and Rescue dog handlers.

    Mary-Ann, in the past, has sat on the Board and executive of the Provincial SAR Alberta organization for 5-years, gaining insight of the SAR community as a whole. She believes that cooperation between resources is essential. Mary-Ann has many accomplishments to add to her expertise. She has developed training, seminars, lectures and evaluation methods to provide to the search dog community. Mary-Ann is recognized throughout the search community in Alberta.

    Within these years Mary-Ann has gained insight on why some methods work with some dogs and not with others. She has an understanding on dog behavior and how some dogs are more suited for the search dog profile then others.

    In 2005, Mary-Ann was enlisted as a training consult and trainer for Synergy K9 Services. She provides her expertise in training of handlers and dogs in detection. Mary-Ann has taught obedience and tracking courses for many years to people interested in CKC trials and just for the pet owner.

    She developed an obedience course specifically designed for the needs of the pet owner. Mary-Ann understands that in order to train a dog properly, one needs to follow a progressive method of moving forward. She recently developed a bark-alert training manual to aid those interested in a bark-alert-trained search dog. A manual will be available by Spring, 2008.

    For information on dates, costs, locations for courses and/or seminars, contact:

    Mary-Ann Warren
    Precision Search Dog®

    mwtracks@netzero.net

    Phone 780-939-2675

    Photo credit to Precision Search Dog® unless otherwise noted.

    © Copyright 2008 by Precision Search Dog®