Founded in 1976, CARDA® is a 501(c)3 non-profit, and the largest volunteer search dog organization in America.

Water dog: Searches for, and detects, human remains in water

Disaster dog: Searches for, and detects, inaccessible subjects

Trailing dog: Trailing is the following of an individual scent trail from a particular person. This dog is generally worked on lead, requires a scent article to begin searching, will follow the trail of the selected individual,

Cadaver dog: Searches for, and detects, decomposing human remains.

Wilderness Air Scent Dog: The air scent or area dog will generally work off lead and search for clues such as human scent in an area.

Working dog breeds, are most suitable for search & rescue.

Trailing dog: Is generally used to identify one particular individual’s scent from any other person. Trailing dogs are more appropriate for SAR missions than tracking dogs.

The state of California includes rugged high altitude terrain. All SAR teams must pass tests, by type. e.g. Type 1 defined as extreme conditions, altitude (generally 7000’+) or snow, ice, desert, heat, heavy ground cover steep difficult terrain.

Air Scent Dog: Is used to search a specific area. It is not expected that an area search dog will require a scent article prior to searching but a scent article may be used at the discretion of the handler.

Avalanche Dog: Searches for, and detects a subject, recently buried under snow.