Canine Forensics Foundation

Established in 2019, we have a combined total of 40+ years training dogs. We are all about finding historical human remains, as old as 9000 years! Our specially trained dogs are a non-invasive search tool to locate human remains. We raise and train our dogs for this work ourselves - they are our forever dogs too.

We are a 501(c)(3) corporation made up of a 3-person volunteer Board of Directors and currently 5 canine handlers and their canines. We are an Independent Contractor organization, bringing in the best certified Historic Human Remains Detection dogs and their handlers to work together as a team to locate old burials.

Our specially trained dogs are able to locate and alert on historic human remains - really old burials, whether it's a single bone or fully articulated remains. Native American burials, pioneer graves and burials, human bone recognition, and other missing or unmarked burials.

The application of K9FF Historical Human Remains Detection (HHRD) K9s represents one of several non-invasive tools that can assist archeologists in building predictive models for the effective search of such sites. Other parts of this model should include oral history, historical records and non-invasive remote sensing survey tools such as ground penetrating radar (GPR), magnetometry, and electrical resistivity (ER).

Our dogs and handlers NEVER dig! If you need an area to be dug up, we have Archaeologists who would be available for this work. The predictive model might best look like this, looking down thru the transparent layers from 6 to 1:

Layer 6. Electrical Resistivity adds a layer of corroboration of the dogs’ alerts
Layer 5. Magnetometry adds a layer of corroboration of the dogs’ alerts
Layer 4. Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) can corroborate the dogs’ alerts
Layer 3. HHRD dogs distill larger areas down into smaller areas of detection
Layer 2. Historical Records
Layer 1. Oral History

When stacked graphically, with Layer 1 on the bottom, looking down thru the layers a pattern that corroborates the presence of human remains comes into focus. While not all tools are used in every project, the Layers 1 thru 3 or 4 are most often used. Depending upon the terrain, ground penetrating radar is a tool that lends to the credibility of the finds of the K9s in a search by “matching” events in the GPR search that are within 3m of a K9 trained alert. 

We have located burials as old as 9,000 years old (carbon dated) and as deep as 9-10 feet. The US Army Corps of Engineers has done a study on what and how our dogs do this, and even suggested the best ways to utilize these specialized dogs. Click here to read the study. We have worked for some well known companies - National Geographic Society, KB Homes, and many, many Indian Tribes all over the United States.

We offers our services to Indian Tribes around the world, Cultural Resource Management firms, Archaeologists, Historical and Heritage Cemetery organizations, Historical Preservation organizations, Pioneer Historical organizations, Builders, Developers, and Federal, State, County, and City Agencies.

We strive to provide our canine search services so that the interests of all people are met in the location and protection of ancestors and ancestoral burial sites around the world. We also help to ensure that proposed projects will not disturb burials and ALL data and photos are held completely CONFIDENTIAL.

NEW GPR SERVICES ADDED TO OUR REPERTOIRE OF SEARCH TOOLS

We now have the ability to provide Ground Penetration Radar (GPR) services along with canine search services. Ground Penetration Radar (GPR) services (remote sensing) along with our Canine Search Services can present the most accurate survey results. This combination of specialized search tools, along with Oral History and other archival information creates a Predictive Model that can provide multiple layers of corroboration to ensure a more successul survey. Starting with the canine search, which can distill large search areas down to areas of interest, these smaller areas of interest can then create a 2nd Predictive Model layer using Ground Penetrating Radar.