ChesCo Search Dogs

04/22/2026

We recently found out that last week one of our previous SAR dogs crossed the rainbow bridge. Jessie was almost ten years old and very suddenly developed severe medical issues that required her handler to make that hard choice.

Jessie was handled by Dr. Lisa P. They trained with our team and deployed on multiple searches with us in Jessie’s earlier years. Unfortunately, due to the demands of the Covid epidemic on her practice, Lisa had to take a step back from her SAR volunteer work. Lisa still supports our team when she can in other ways.

Jessie was her soul dog. And we know how hard it is to lose that first K9 partner. Jessie had an awesome life with Lisa and her family. Thank you Jessie! RIP.

04/05/2026

ChesCo is happy to introduce two new future K9 handlers to the team.

Cory, (L) with her Ibizan Hound, Osiris. Or otherwise known as Ozzie.

Jill (R) with her mixed all American K9, Argo. While his DNA is still out for analysis, we suspect Argo has a healthy amount of one of the cattle dog breeds in him.

Interestingly, both of the dogs names come from mythology.
Osiris, was an Egyptian god of the underworld and resurrection.

Argo was the name of the boat used by Jason and the Argonauts to search for the Golden Fleece in Greek Mythology.

We are looking forward to working with the four of them. Keep following us to see their progress!

Reach out and welcome them to the team!!

04/05/2026

ChesCo Search Dogs extends their sympathies to the members of the Walnuttown Fire Co. as well as the families of Chief Buck and Assistant Chief Shirk. Both of whom were tragically killed in the line of duty by a drunk driver.

Walnuttown is a small rural community just NW of Reading in adjoining Berks County.

Walnuttown Fire Department were on a search detail for an elderly woman this past Saturday evening. She was later found alive.

We want to remind everyone that search IS an emergency. Please respect ALL emergency vehicles.
And never drive drunk.

Two firefighters were killed when an off-roading vehicle and a sedan crashed on Route 222 in Berks County on Saturday, officials said.

04/05/2026

Wonderful job by all those who were able to respond. Some of the PA agencies and teams that responded to this search came from hours away, some were over three hours away. This is why it’s important to support your local search teams. It doesn’t take much to do so.

Press Release from the Search on 4/2/26 - 4/3/26

04/01/2026

Happy to announce today we are now working with a drone make to deploy drone K9 handlers for our air scent and HRD K9’s. This will keep our handlers from being at risk in the field. We’ll also now be able to have handlers who can’t walk up hills. As well as those afraid of snakes, terrified of ticks, or have bad allergies.

These drones will have flight capability and be tracked so they have air and ground mobility.

Handlers at command wil be able to use a drone loudspeaker to communicate with the dog. The drones will have preprogrammed handler commands in their memory as well that can be executed by keystrokes. These will include commands like
- whoa
- stop
- get back to work!
- leave it!
- Come here!
- Come here NOW!
- I really mean it! I said COME HERE!!
- get out of the water
- DON’T EAT THAT!

Drones will have multiple toys on board for final reward as well as a treat bin that dispenses treats the handler preloads. Future mods will include a ball Chuck-it throwing arm.

Help support us as we enter this new drone world!

03/21/2026

03/21/2026

Off leash training starts immediately. Building the handler/k9 bond starts day 1.

03/21/2026

We are happy to introduce our newest, potential search dog…Orion. Orion comes to us from Plummer’s Catahoulas. He arrived today to join his new owner and handler Em.

We know Em will make a great handler and our team looks forward to helping them both achieve all their future goals.

03/09/2026

We extend our sympathies to Linda as her K9 partner Luther crossed over the rainbow bridge this weekend. Linda served with teams in this area prior to retiring to FL and working with Trisar K9 Search & Recovery for many years. Recently she moved back to Pa and has started coming out with ChesCo. The previous weekend Luther ran probably his last training search with us. Retired dogs love their work and one of the joys we can give them is the chance to still run some problems appropriate to their health and age. They love the work and still love working for their handlers and playing with their reward toys right up to the end. These dogs are as dedicated as their handlers.

RIP Luther! You were everything a search dog should be.

02/25/2026

Many of you have probably seen Hunter’s pic at one time or another. Hunter and his handler Keith, have been with us since he was a puppy. He recently just recertified as a wilderness live find search dog. Unfortunately, he has also recently been diagnosed with a rare, aggressive cancer that has spread to his front leg. He has began chemo to try and avoid an amputation so he can continue to work as a search dog. But as with any chemo treatment, the costs are high. We are looking to raise funds to offset the cost. We are working with Spikes K9 fund to help raise the money. Please visit Hunters page at Spike’s and make a small contribution to help out.

If you would rather donate directly to ChesCoSearch Dogs, make sure to mention it’s for Hunter’s medical costs. You can donate at our web site. Any funds in excess of treatment costs, will be used for a long term medical account for future ChesCo Search Dogs that may need assistance.

ChesCo and Spikes K9 Fund are both non-profit organizations that depend on your support.

Hunter has been training to be a search dog since he was 9 months old and past his most recent recertification at 9 years old in October. He was diagnosed with cancer and we are praying that 6 rounds of Chemo will let him continue to do what he loves.