Traildogs K9 SAR

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Traildogs K9 SAR K9 Search & Rescue | Live Find + Recovery
Operational dogs. Real deployments. Donor-funded. Every training matters.
⬇️ Support a working dog.

Today was a good one. Thank you to everyone who stopped by Hollywood Feed to meet the team, ask questions, and learn a l...
09/20/2026

Today was a good one. Thank you to everyone who stopped by Hollywood Feed to meet the team, ask questions, and learn a little more about what Traildogs actually does. And most importantly, receive some puppy love.
One moment we won’t forget: a man stopped to meet the dogs and told us that search dogs were part of what led to two friends being rescued on September 11th, and that bloodhounds later tracked down two of his fellow soldiers in Afghanistan. Moments like that are why we keep showing up to train - every hour we put in is really about one thing: supporting these dogs to help bring people home.
A big thank-you to Hollywood Feed for hosting us and giving this mission a place to show up in person. If you missed it today, don’t worry - we’ll be doing more of these.

We are here until 4, stop in and say hello and pet some dogs!
09/19/2026

We are here until 4, stop in and say hello and pet some dogs!

It’s with an impossibly heavy heart that we share that K9 Darwin passed away on September 15, 2026.Darwin was ten years ...
09/18/2026

It’s with an impossibly heavy heart that we share that K9 Darwin passed away on September 15, 2026.
Darwin was ten years old, born July 21, 2016.
Darwin was our first search dog, and for ten years he spent his career trailing through Georgia’s woods and water, searching for people who were missing.
Darwin was a once in a lifetime dog. He was up for any adventure that came his way, no matter the ask.
Darwin’s lifetime credentials:
Darwin von Bachbett RE SAR-W THDN DS CGC TKA BN-V
American Kennel Club (AKC) Search & Rescue - Wilderness - 9/22/2019 - 1st boxer on record to receive this title
AKC Canine Good Citizen - 11/2017
AKC Rally Excellent - 6/25/2021
AKC Trick Dog Advanced - 6/11/2020
AKC Therapy Dog - 2/12/2025
North American Diving Dogs - Dock Senior - PB 17’9” - 9/2/2019
AKC Beginner Obedience Novice - 9/15/2026
Georgia Emergency Management & Homeland Security License - 12/2017, 8/27/2020, 8/14/2023
GA K9 NTC Tactical Tracker Teams Program, Level III Certification - Trailing Expert - 10/22/2021 - 1st boxer to receive this title and is still 1 of 2 (second is Angie)
National Association for Search & Rescue, Canine SARTECH III - Trailing - 9/22/2019
National Association for Search & Rescue, Canine SARTECH HRD Land - Type Other - 11/28/2018 & 10/31/2020
North American Police Work Dog Association - Trailing - 10/5/2018
L.E.T.S. Human Remains Detection Certification - Land & Water - 9/26/2022
19 trailing searches and 32 human remains detection cases over his career
Upwards of 20 SAR related seminars
Worked or trained in at least 10 different states
Thank you, Darwin, for every hour of training, every search, and every family you helped bring home an answer to. You gave this team everything. We are beyond grateful to have had him in our lives. Rest easy, D.
If you have a memory of Darwin — please share it.

Mark your calendar: Saturday, September 19th, we’re setting up at Hollywood Feed for a meet-and-greet with the Traildogs...
09/14/2026

Mark your calendar: Saturday, September 19th, we’re setting up at Hollywood Feed for a meet-and-greet with the Traildogs team - dogs included.
Come say hi to K9 Kane, K9 Dixie, K9 Blue, and more, ask us anything about what search and rescue K9 work actually looks like, and put a face - well, several faces - to this page in person.
12-4pm at Hollywood Feed, 6235A Roswell Rd NE, Sandy Springs, GA 30328. Free to attend - just bring your questions, and maybe a treat if the staff allows it.
Tag someone who needs an excuse to pet a working dog this Saturday.

Today marks 25 years since September 11, 2001.More than 300 search and rescue dogs worked at Ground Zero in the days tha...
09/11/2026

Today marks 25 years since September 11, 2001.
More than 300 search and rescue dogs worked at Ground Zero in the days that followed - climbing rubble, working through smoke and fire, searching for survivors and then for the people who didn’t make it home.
One of them was a boxer named Louie, handled by jeanette. Every one of our working dogs is a boxer too, which is part of why that particular story has always stuck with us.
Pictured is our K9 Angie at an annual memorial service honoring fallen police and search-and-rescue working dogs - the same tradition of service and sacrifice that Louie and every dog who worked that week in 2001 represent.
Today we’re remembering all of the dogs who worked that week, and the handlers who trained them - every breed, every one of them showing up for something almost impossible to comprehend. Thank you.

09/09/2026

A question we get often: how does someone become a certified K9 search and rescue handler?
It’s a multi-year commitment, not a certification completed once. Handlers train continuously alongside their dogs in navigation, scent theory, and evidence preservation, and more. Both handler and dog periodically retest to maintain active certification. K9 Kane and I travel to a military training facility at least once a year for exactly this - getting both of us comfortable operating on rope systems, at height, in an unfamiliar industrial environment. It’s environmental socialization as much as it is a technical skill: the goal is for Kane to stay calm and focused no matter how strange the terrain gets.
The real-world case for it is simple - some search areas can’t be reached any other way. If the space we need to search is only accessible by rope, that’s not the moment to be learning the system for the first time.
This is also where volunteer capacity becomes a real constraint for teams like ours - recruiting and training new handlers, and maintaining specialized skills like this one, takes time and resources most volunteer-run 501(c)(3)s don’t have to spare. If your organization has an interest in supporting workforce development for public safety volunteers, I’d welcome that conversation.

After ten years, K9 Darwin is officially retiring from active trailing and human remains detection work.His first offici...
08/30/2026

After ten years, K9 Darwin is officially retiring from active trailing and human remains detection work.
His first official search was August 20, 2018, in Rabun County at Tallulah Gorge. His last was today, August 29, 2026 - also Rabun County. The same person who navigated that very first search eight years ago was behind the wheel of the boat today.
Darwin has spent a decade on this team - trailing, searching on land and in water, showing up for calls most people never hear about. Some of those searches ended with a family finally getting an answer. Some ended with someone found alive. Darwin was the first dog in the truck, every time.
He’s still one of the most reliable dogs we have. That’s exactly why we’re making this choice now, on our terms, instead of waiting for that to change.
Ten years of finding people. Thank you, Darwin.

08/28/2026

Ever wonder how we actually find out someone needs us?
It starts with a phone call - usually from local law enforcement or Georgia Emergency Management. They give us a location, a name, and whatever details they have. From there, it’s gear in the truck, dogs loaded, and on the road.
No sirens, no drama - just a very fast, very practiced routine we’ve built specifically so no time gets wasted.
This is the part nobody sees on the news. Now you have.

08/24/2026

A slightly different kind of post today: our founder, Alex Collier was recently a guest on The Mack Podcast, talking about personal protection dogs and what families should know before getting one.
Not search and rescue exactly, but the same core idea applies - the right training and the right dog matter more than people think.
She gave Traildogs a shoutout near the end too, which we obviously appreciated. Episode link in our bio if you want the full conversation.

08/23/2026

Real quick, some good news: the campaign you watched us run these last few weeks raised about $1,200 - entirely from people showing up for us.
Here’s exactly where it’s going: $500 is funding Kane’s certification in Kentucky and additional training in Indiana, $200 is going toward high-quality, nutritional appropriate dog food, and $300 covers Angie’s annual vet exam. The remaining $200 is staying in savings - we’d rather hold a small reserve than spend everything the moment it comes in.
That’s not us being modest about the number. For an all-volunteer team, $1,200 is real money - it’s the difference between waiting on something and having it ready for the next call.
Thank you to everyone who gave, shared, or just watched all the way through. This next stretch, we’re going to show you more of what this work actually looks like - and we’ll keep asking, because the work doesn’t stop.

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Atlanta, GA
30328

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+14046649354

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