TORI SWAN: K-9 Search & Rescue The unsung Hero Thursday, July 7, 2022

Tori Swan has been in SAR (Search and Rescue) over the last 19 years, but prior to that, starting as a toddler, assisted her family in aerial SAR. She has been training dogs for 29 years, really beginning at age 8 when she started training and running sled dogs. By 10 years old, she was training lion and bird hunting dogs for clients through her family’s outfitting business. At age 11, Tori began working horses for a neighboring ranch and at 16, accepted an offer to train cutting horses for a high end cutting and race horse farm in Dallas Texas. At age 18, she got her pilots license and officially joined a volunteer SAR Unit. While Tori attended honors college at Montana State University, she began an apprenticeship training mobility service dogs and within a couple years, joined Guide Dogs of America raising and training Seeing-Eye dogs for the blind. Prior to graduation, in 2010 Tori attended flight school and flew as a full time commercial helicopter pilot, heli logging, aerial sawing and for wildland fire while training dogs and deploying on missing person and criminal investigations as a K-9 Handler. In 2016, Tori started specializing in scent detection K-9s, to include Tracking/Trailing, Air Scent, Human Remains Detection, and drugs and narcotics. She has trained and handled hundreds of dogs of many different breeds and dog-handler teams alike in basic and advanced obedience, behavior issues, service and scent detection skills. Tori has a proven track record of coaching handlers and their dogs through successful national level certifications in various scent detection, disciplines. In 2021, Tori began working with the sheriffs office K-9 unit, training 6 days per week with dual purpose K-9s and responding to missions with the sheriffs office K-9 unit, advancing her knowledge of the working K-9 industry tremendously. Tori currently owns and handles a nationally certified scent detection K-9, Compass, a Border Collie, certified in trailing, live air scent, avalanche and HRD, and a dual purpose K-9, Fury, a Belgian Malinois, certified in HRD and in-training for evidence, tracking, narcotics and apprehension. Tori is the president of Search and Rescue K-9s of Idaho, (SARKI), a national K-9 resource and has previously started and led Search and Rescue K-9 Units. Tori, K-9 Compass are K-9 Fury are active members of SARKI, Idaho State Search and Rescue, National Association of Search and Rescue and National Search Dog Alliance, all of which Tori is a nationally certified handler, trainer and evaluator. Tori is also an evaluator for American Kennel Club and holds personal certifications with AKC, the Emergency Care and Safety Institute’s K9 Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation and with K9TECC - Tactical Emergency Casualty Care. Tori lives in McCall, Idaho, with her husband Marcus and their middle-school aged son Tyler. Tori and her family moved to McCall in 2018 when her husband returned to McCall to continue his smoke jumping career.