Kerrie Garges
AMPWDA Instructor/Evaluator
Kerrie has always had a love of the outdoors and dogs. She has
been teaching environmental education in an outdoor classroom
setting for the past 26 years. Her interest and passion with SAR
started when she took a scent tracking class with her first K9 in
2010. K9 Ace a black lab (her heart dog) then went on to get
certified in live find through AWDA. Ace taught her alot about being
a K9 handler and how to work as a team. Kerrie then certified a
female black lab Luna in trailing with AMPWDA. Her current and
certified /operational K9 is a black lab Gauge. He is certified in
Live Find with NASAR and is also certified in Article with NASAR.
Kerrie’s philosophy of training is to always have a training
plan/goal for you and your K9, train the K9 in front of you,
foundation skills are always something we should be working on and
train for fluency.
Kerrie has earned her NASAR LE for SARTECH 2, NASAR LE for Canine
SARTECH Area and Article. She has trained and attended various
seminars in multiple states as well as attended in person and online
classes such as Lost Person Behavior, Blue Bridge Autistic Training,
Alzheimer First Responder, Scent Theory, Search Strategies and WFA
classes . Kerrie is a K9 Handler/Trainer and Deputy Chief of her
local volunteer team ChesCo Search Dogs in Pennsylvania which she
considers her second family. For the past 4 years she has enjoyed
presenting K9 Search Operations & Theory RC-114 to the cadets during
the summer at Hawk Mountain Ranger School. Kerrie has been on
numerous searches with her team, assisting other local SAR groups on
searches, with her current K9 or as a flanker. She enjoys training
with others, the comradery of our fellow SAR members, learning and
experiencing anything new and helping her community.
