Current Instructors
We are pleased to bring forward another great set of instructors for our 2025 seminar!
Area
Chad & Angie Crary
Chad Crary has been doing Search and Rescue for nine years with WI K9 SOS. His current working search partner is Leaf, a Belgian Tervuren, certified in NASAR Area Search and Land HRD.
Before SAR, Chad spent a great deal of time outdoors training hunting dogs. He is excited to be given the opportunity to share his knowledge with others and to learn from them, in order to make better search teams in the field.
Angie Crary has been a member of WI K9 SOS Search and Rescue for eight years. Her K9 partner is a six-year-old Golden Retriever named Oakley. They are certified with NASAR in Area Search and Human Remains Detection.
Besides having three dogs, they also have 2 horses, a flock of chickens and two cats. She enjoys spending time outdoors with family hiking and exploring Wisconsin and the upper peninsula. She’s looking forward to meeting other K9 handlers, learning from and sharing her knowledge with them.
HRD
Dr. Ben Alexander, PhD
Dr. Michael Ben Alexander began dog training in 1972 with his parents GSDs for confirmation, obedience and later schutzhund. Ben has continued training dogs for a variety of venues over the years, settling with search and rescue dogs in 2000 and has dedicated his life to the furthering the science behind the dogs since 2010.
Ben has trained 4 partners to full certification with multiple finds and is currently training partner number 5 and 6 for cold cases and historic/pre-contact burials. He has certified in the past with NASAR, NNDDA, NAPWDA, TASK and FIRST Detection K9. He founded Cen-Tex SAR in 2002 and FIRST Detection K9 in 1016. Ben and his partners have responded to a variety of criminal cases, drowning recoveries, and disasters.
Ben obtained his MS in animal behavior in 2009 and his PhD in Forensic Soil Science in 2014. Ben began teaching at seminars in 2010 after being encouraged to do so by his own mentors Shirley Hammond, Cheryl Kennedy, Ann Christensen and others. In 2013, through his research at the forensic anthropology center at Texas state (FACTS), he began a pilot seminar program which developed into the robust K9 training program that now exists at Texas State. Ben is the FACTS K9 training coordinator. While he still continues to do seminars and certifications across the country he has focused his efforts on providing one of the best learning environments in the United States for cadaver dog teams at FACTS. However he is always available for consultation and strongly believes in the service cadaver dog teams provide to their community.
Trailing
Shanon Kimball
Shanon resides in Anchorage Alaska. She started in search and rescue (SAR) in 2008 with the Anchorage Search Team, in 2009 a bloodhound came into her path. Her current K9 Partners are Abbie, a 10 year old bloodhound and Raven a 2 year old bloodhound.
When she is not teaching Search and Rescue trailing here in the US or overseas in Germany, she operates, trains and evaluates the dogs of North Paw K9 Search and Recovery, which she founded as an urban trailing team, to be a resource for the State of Alaska in 2016.
They are deployed by the Anchorage Police department, the Alaska State Troopers, the FBI and other various law enforcement agencies to aid in lost person cases and locating evidence.
As of 2023, she is with the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children as a Team Adam Consultant.
Her background also includes USAF Security Police – 4 years ODS, Vet Tech , Court Security – current 25 years, NASAR Evaluator/Instructor Trailing, HRD, Urban Search Management, MLPI, Critical Incident Team training.