2025 SORT Seminar Instructor Bios

Instructors for Air Scent

Heather Jo Cutting

Heather Jo Cutting has been involved with canine search and rescue rescue since 1997 when she and Josh Gerstman joined King County Search Dogs with their first Labrador Retrievers Edgar and Boston. Her interest in K9 SAR goes back to the late 1980s when she was on a snow camping weekend with Girl Scouts and volunteered to hide in the snow for Marcia Koenig and one her early sar dogs. 

Heather and Josh have worked with 7 dogs. Heather’s current dog Tika is a 5 year old chocolate lab,  working in area(airscent), HRD water and snow, with HRD certifications through IPWDA and NSDA. Heather has been on more than 500 search missions as a dog handler and also serves as an operations leader(search manager), senior trainer and instructor. Heather has led or assisted with SAR dog workshops throughout the Pacific NW and internationally, including area, HRD, water, avalanche, trailing and search management. Heather is a member and evaluator for National Search Dog Alliance. Heather works in healthcare administration in Washington State.

Gail Collins

Gail Collins has been serving in K-9 Search and Rescue since 2005, and has trained, deployed, and certified dogs in multiple disciplines with civilian SAR organizations (OSSA, NSDA, IPWDA). She has served as a K-9 Unit Lead, K-9 training and testing coordinator, and incident commander, and currently holds elected Board positions with search and rescue organizations both locally and nationally. Gail is a SAR K-9 Principal Evaluator for multiple disciplines (OSSA, NSDA), and has multiple certifications in search management. She is the owner of Sunflower K-9 based in Idaho and has been a seminar and workshop instructor since 2014, with a special affinity for real-world problem solving and mentoring SAR K-9 teams.

Gail continues to be deployed on missions and investigations across the West, and has had numerous live finds and recoveries with her canine partners. She has also spent her life in the outdoors and worked as a Wildlife Biologist for over 20 years, specializing in large carnivore research in some of the most remote wilderness of the US. Gail currently is deploying her fourth K-9 partner in human remains detection.

Instructors for HRD

David Lovell

CPL. David Lovell is a current 15 year veteran of the Brevard County Sheriff’s Office, with 10 years as a K9 Handler and Trainer. David is currently responsible for all Canine Patrol, Drug and Human Remains Odor Detection Schools, Tracking and Puppy Programs as well as a current Patrol/Drug detection K9 Handler along with handling a secondary Human Remains K9. He is a Certified FDLE Canine Team Trainer and Canine Team Evaluator as well as an Evaluator/Instructor for the National Narcotics Detector Dog Association (NNDDA), American Kennel Club (AKC) and United K9’s. He has trained and evaluated Canine Teams from numerous Agencies all over the southeastern United States.

Instructors for Trailing

Neil Day

Neil has been involved in the Training of dogs for over seventeen years, including Search and Rescue K9’s. Starting in the UK where he was an operational handler for over ten years with NSARDA and a national assessor helping in the training and certifying of multiple dogs on various teams around the UK.

He moved to Flathead Valley, Montana,  USA in 2018, with his family  and owns All Day Dog Adventures. He trains dogs full time, including Basic Obedience, Behavioral modification, Scent work, Tracking & trailing and the disciplines of Live Find Air scent, HRD, Tracking and Trailing. He is still an operational SAR handler with three dogs currently certified in Air scent, HRD, Tracking and trailing through, NAPWDA and NSDA.

Neil is an NSDA Evaluator in Air scent, Trailing and HRD. He has taught multiple SAR K9 seminars all over the country including Alaska, Texas, Idaho, Washington, Montana, Arizona, Missouri, South Carolina, Southern California, Pennsylvania, Utah.

When not working K9’s you will find Neil in the backcountry hiking, camping and skiing Big Mountain with his family and dogs.

Amity Larsen

I am Amity Larsen; a professional working and pet dog trainer located in Idaho. I am the owner/trainer at The Good Shepherd K9 Training, established in 2014 as well as the co-owner and handler/instructor at Precision K9 Detection. I have been a SAR K9 handler since 2016 and am the K9 Lead with the Lewis County Sheriff’s Office Search and Rescue.

I began working with detection dogs in earnest in 2012. I certified my first tracking/trailing dog in 2017 with IPWDA. Since that time, I have certified multiple
dogs with IPWDA, NSDA as well as with Idaho POST. I have certified dogs for tracking/trailing, HRD, Area Live Find, Evidence recovery and narcotics.

I began instructing in 2018 and have been traveling to provide training and instruction frequently over the last few years.