Bedford County EMA Hosts K9 Training to Bring The Lost Home

Shelbyville, TN (May 20-22, 2025) – The Bedford County Emergency Management Agency hosted an advanced scent discriminate K9 trailing seminar for area EMA K9 Teams and responders in May to enhance their search capabilities to locate missing and wandering persons. Bedford Co EMA handler and Assistant Director Tammy Anderson, along with Bloodhound partner, K9 Bruno, worked on their advanced scent collection techniques and K9 trailing skills during the 3-day scenario-based seminar with Scent Evidence K9 CEO, Paul Coley. K9 Handlers and responders from Metro Moore County EMA, Franklin County EMA & Rescue, TEMA, and Vanderbilt PD also attended the seminar to build their missing person response capabilities.

The seminar began with a presentation by Coley that covered search success data, response protocol training, community missing person awareness, and Scent Kit information for families and caregivers of those at high risk of wandering. Coley demonstrated the importance of collecting the best possible scent article at the scene to search with and how K9 Teams interact with other search responders to determine direction of travel for faster location and recovery times. The K9 teams then applied the knowledge in several trailing exercises over the next 3 days. The emergency response search scenarios included incorporating urban trailing techniques in Vanderbilt Bedford Hospital using The SEKR scent evidence technology and On Scene Scent Collection Kits to collect highly effective scent articles. “Deploying from a residence or a location like the hospital, is one of the toughest jobs these K9 Teams face,” stated Coley. The Bloodhounds used by the 3 agencies during the seminar were all trained by Coley to locate a specific person using their unique scent. “A person’s scent is like their fingerprint and the dogs are specially-trained to work in highly populated areas where scent contamination can be a factor,” continued Coley.

Bedford County Emergency Management and Homeland Security Agency was awarded a Federal grant in 2024 to receive scent discriminate K9 trailing and missing person response training as well as community preparedness, prevention, and awareness resources. The Kevin and Avonte Program: Reducing Injury and Death of Missing Individuals with Dementia and Developmental Disabilities grant provides the resources to the Bedford County EMA K9 Team first responders and their network of mutual aid agencies in surrounding areas. The training and resources included in the grant are provided by the Scent Evidence K9 Bringing The Lost Home Program. Bedford County EMA has participated in the scent discriminate K9 training with neighboring Metro Moore Emergency Management and Franklin County Emergency Management and Rescue (both Kevin and Avonte grant recipients) for the past few years and their teamwork has resulted in multiple lifesaving missing person recoveries in TN. Bedford Co EMA further extends the reach and value of the grant resources by inviting response leadership from TEMA (Tennessee Emergency Management Agency) and Vanderbilt Police Dept. in Nashville TN to regularly attend the training seminars. The grant also implements a highly successful Scent Kit program for people with Alzheimer’s Disease and autism who are at risk of wandering. “60% of those with Alzheimer’s Disease or dementia will wander and 50% of children with autism will wander at least once before age 17. Bedford County EMA is raising the bar in public safety by using their advanced trailing and response skills to save lives and create missing person awareness in the Shelbyville TN community. They strive to become even better at their job of bringing the lost home by networking and training with neighboring K9 teams and EMA’s,“ stated Coley.

Having a Scent Kit prepared in advance provides responders with an uncontaminated scent article to locate a missing person and bring them home safe. For more information on how to get a free Scent Kit for someone at risk of wandering in the Shelbyville TN area contact Bedford County EMA.