Carren Corcoran is the founder of Canine Search Solutions, LLC.  Carren has been a Madison Police Officer since May of 1990.  Her love of dogs and her fascination with the power of their noses has been the driving force behind her work with dogs.

Carren began novice dog training in 1989 in a variety of arenas including obedience, schutzhund, guide dog training and foster care.  Carren was a founding member of Central Wisconsin Search and Rescue, a non profit organization, and served as the team's Training Director from 1998 until the team disbanded in 2004, assisting numerous dog teams to certification.

Carren's first search dog, Norse, a male German Shepherd, was Central Wisconsin Search and Rescue's first certified dog and the team's anchor.  Norse participated in approximately 65 searches throughout his career and searched in Wisconsin, Illinois, Iowa and Michigan.  Norse had numerous confirmed finds and had his work confirmed by the Wisconsin State Crime Lab, Illinois State Crime Lab, a forensic anthropologist and police evidence technicians.  Norse passed away on May 5, 2005, at 11 years and 10 months old, and his last search was in April of 2005.  Norse was an ambassador to both the German Shepherd breed and HRD dogs.  He touched

many people's lives with his intelligence, affection and work ethic.  Norse taught by example the limitless ability of an excellent working dog and what it can accomplish for a homicide investigation.

Carren's second HRD dog Cleo, a female German Shepherd, retired in 2008 after approximately 55 searches.  Cleo was adopted in 2000 as a 2-year-old stray from Badgerland German Shepherd Rescue.  Cleo was trained to detect exclusively human remains, and had no cross-training in live human scent, as Norse did.  Cleo's extensive training was fine-tuned to include detection of trace evidence such as human blood

Carren's current partner is Molly, a female German Shepherd born in July 2006.  She begain training for human remains detection in the spring of 2007.  Molly obtains national and yearly certification in Land and Water Cadaver through NNDDA.  She has participated in searches in Wisconsin, Illinois, Minnesota, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Ontario, Canada.

Carren also handles K9 Slim, a dual purpose patrol dog with the City of Madison Police Department.  To learn more about Slim, visit the City of Madison Police Department's Special Unit section.

OTHER TEAM MEMBERS

Theresa Christ's extensive history with working dogs began in 1993, when she began formal K9 training in obedience and agility.  Theresa pursued and earned certification as an obedience instructor through Canine Connection, Inc. in 2000, teaching private obedience lessons and Canine Good Citizen classes to 4H groups; in 2002, she was certified through the AKC as a certified CGC evaluator.  Theresa has been fostering with the American Belgian Malinois Club since 2000.  She was a founding member of the former non-profit SAR group Locators of the Missing, and began SAR work in 1996 with her first K9 partner.  Theresa's second partner, a Belgian Malinois/German Shepherd mix named Sammie (who was originally in training as a seeing-eye dog but rejected due to being too intense,) was certified in cadaver search in 2000.  Sammie is trainied to detect human remains only, and has participated in approximately 60 searches in Illinois, Wisconsin, Minnesota and Michigan.  She has numerous confirmed finds, and her work has been confirmed by the Illinois and Wisconsin state crime labs, as well as forensic anthropologists and police department evidence technicians.  In addition, Sammie's work has contributed to probable cause for search warrants in both Wisconsin and Nevada.

Currently, Sammie's mind is as saucy as ever, however, her body is beginning to slow.  She will be fully retired in 2011 when Theresa's new partner, Tazer, will be certified.

Tazer is a Belgian Malinois/German Shepherd mix, his mom was a purepred GSD and dad was a purebred Mali.  Tazer came from an accidental breeding, and was the last pup left in the litter that no one wanted.  He was donated to CSS in hopes of him becoming a cadaver dog.  Tazer will be 2 years old in October and is Sam's retirement package.  After drive testing and working with about a dozen other prospects, Tazer is, for certain, the one- Theresa's new "rock star."  Her goal for Tazer is certification by fall of 2010 with NAPWADA.  Although it has been hard for Theresa to change hats from working Sam to Tazer, she is truly enjoying the time she gets to spend and work with both of them.

Jennifer Foth is a 911 operator and dispatcher for the Dane County Communications Center in Wisconsin.  Jennifer is in her 15th year of servicing the public.  Jennifer obtained Ecko, a 5-year-old male German Shepherd from Canada in 2001.  Ecko began his training in dual-purpose search rescue as an MPRT dog (Multi Purpose Response Team.)  Ecko excelled and obtained his live-person certification and land cadaver certification through Central Wisconsin Search and Rescue in 2004.

Ecko participated in approximately 15 searches as a primary dog and has had 2 confirmed finds.  In one case, Ecko located scattered human remains on a double homicide and the finds were confirmed by a Forensic Anthropologist.  Ecko also assisted LE in locating the body of a drown victim.  Ecko's promising career was cut short when he was diagnosed with a heart condition.  Ecko loved his job and his early retirement has created a very big hole for CSS.  Today Ecko enjoys his life from a couch and Jennifer continues to provide field support to other handlers of CSS.

Home / About Us / HRD: The Tool / Uses / Legal Issues / Links / Contact Us / What's New