Pictured at a seminar held recently by Irish Search Dogs were Waterford ladies Suzanne Flynn and Catriona Walsh with Irish Search Dogs founder and author of "In search of the missing" Mick McCarthy and Pat Moffitt, Sonoma County Sheriff's department, California, USA, an expert on search dogs, who was the main speaker at the event. The event was attended by members of various organisations such as Civil Defence, An Garda Síochána and the Irish Coastguard who often find themselves working together in cases for missing people. Speaking at the event Mick McCarthy said “We've no right to keep this information to ourselves, that's why we opened this seminar to the public. It would be unfair on the families of missing persons not to."

One of the aims of the event was to open channels of communication between these bodies and Irish Search Dogs who are a voluntary organisation. Suzanne says “that though voluntary, we are a serious organisation, our dogs are our tools and we are trained to search, we can help."

Pat Moffitt, a police dog handler with over 30 years experience in training, handling and assessing Search dogs, has been a Community Service Officer with the Sonoma County Sheriff's department for 26 years. Displaying evidence of actual cases she's worked on with her dogs she told some amazing stories of just how powerful dogs are as a tool in tracking and finding people and evidence, and just how focused the dogs are, with bloodhounds in particular walking straight into parked buses so intent are they on the scent they are tracking. In her vast experience with the sheriff's department she has been led directly from a crime scene to the front door of the criminal by bloodhounds following the scent of a single footprint, and had another dog who tracked the scent of blood from a hit and run victim straight back to the car of the offending driver. Pat said "all dogs can do this work, but it's like candy for some. If you take the time and have patience, you make it a game and always let them win."

Later in the day the seminar moved to an nearby outdoor location where demonstrations were given with the bloodhounds tracking a scent laid hours earlier and air scenting dogs seeking out hidden persons in the area. Spectators were amazed to see how efficiently the dogs carried out their work and how much they enjoyed it.

Pat has spent two weeks with members of the Irish Search Dogs in which time they've learned from her invaluable experience. As well as being a certified dog handler and trainer for over 30 years, Pat has an associate degree in criminal justice, is an emergency medical technician, is bomb recognition trained and is a member of Search and Rescue Dogs USA (SARDOGS), a Sonoma City Sheriff SAR member and a member of the American Bloodhound Association. Suzanne said "Training with Pat over the past two weeks and been inspiring and invaluable to missing people and their families."

Pat Moffitt was delighted to accept the position of Honorary Lifetime President of Irish Search Dogs and is looking forward to returning to Ireland next year to certify both the air scenting and scent specific Irish Search Dogs and their handlers.

Anyone interested in becoming involved with Irish Search Dogs or looking for more information should email info@irishsearchdogs.com