About Gail
As the instructor at Scentinel Nose Work Dog Training, I have worked with horses and dogs all of my life. I rode Hunter/Jumper horses and Three-Day Eventing horses professionally for many years after graduating from college and I gave horseback riding lessons up through the advanced levels in dressage and in eventing. When I moved to Massachusetts to go to law school, my training interests shifted to working with search and rescue (SAR) dogs and, over the past twenty-five years, I attended over one hundred workshops and seminars from some of the most preeminent detection dog trainers in the country in my quest to learn how best to train independent, focused, reliable and efficient detection dogs.
While I recently retired from canine SAR, during that time period I trained and certified three dogs as wilderness live find search dogs, two dogs to the State Advanced Level. One of these dogs I also trained and certified twice at the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s (FEMA) Advanced Level Live Find Disaster Dog Evaluation. Another dog I trained and certified twice to the State Advanced Level in Human Remains Detection. I was the founder and former Training Director for the Massachusetts Rescue & Recovery K9 Unit and I was a founder, former Chairperson and Canine Evaluator with the Massachusetts State Search and Rescue Federation. I also was a Canine Handler with the FEMA’s Urban Search and Rescue, Massachusetts Task Force 1 since 1994 as well as a FEMA Lead Live Find Disaster Dog Evaluator and a FEMA Human Remains Detection Evaluator. In these capacities, I have worked with numerous SAR dogs over the years and I freely shared my knowledge and experience, helping many people achieve their SAR certifications. In recognition of my consistent dedication to the promotion of volunteer canine SAR in Massachusetts and to the training I gave my dogs and to my fellow handlers, the Massachusetts State Senate awarded me a “Massachusetts State Senate Citation,” a legislative award of distinction.
As a NACSW Faculty Member, I have instructed at most of the K9 Nose Work® Training Camps held in Pennsylvania, Georgia, Colorado, and Oregon. Currently, I serve as a NACSW Judge and Certifying Official-in-Training for NACSW sanctioned K9 Nose Work® Competition Trials. I have been teaching K9 Nose Work® classes for over eleven years now and I bring my past training experience to my students, many of whom now are among New England’s top title holders in K9 Nose Work®. As of April 2021, I am the instructor of twenty-seven canine teams who have obtained their NW3 Elite Titles and nine of these students have achieved the coveted Elite Championship Title!!
Please see the “Accolades Page” of my website www.scentinelnosework.com for a listing of my other students’ successes in K9 Nose Work®. Congratulations to all!!!
