Cairn Canine Detection

11/03/2025

Kili’s nose never stops finding history. His alert uncovered the 120-year-old gravestone of Eugene Marvin Brown—one more story brought back to light thanks to WSSDAR Sacajawea Chapter volunteers and Franida Maudsley’s historical preservation leadership at Union Pioneer Calvary Cemetery in Tumwater, WA. It's been our honor to work alongside them with our K9 Teams.

08/30/2025

This isn’t just a dog lounging in style—it’s a future Historical Human Remains Detection (HHRD) K9. Our dogs are trained with purpose: to use their incredible noses to help locate ancestral burials, honor cultural heritage, and bring dignity to the forgotten.

08/28/2025

Congratulations to CCD Board Member and K9 handler Sally Olsen and K9 Meara who just passed their Historical Human Remains Detection certification. This is a solid team who already passed their NSDA Land HRD cert quite some time ago. HHRD requires additional specialized training. CCD now has 5 certified HHRD dog teams at our disposal.

08/28/2025

“Hey hooman, don’t mix your signals! One hand says ‘search’ 🕵️‍♂️ and the other hand says ‘cookie time’ 🍪… which one do you think I’m gonna pick? 👀

08/26/2025

Every alert from a Historical Human Remains Detection K9 is more than a signal—it’s a chance to restore history, to honor the past, and to give voice to people who can no longer speak for themselves.

08/19/2025

“Okay so, BIG news—went hiking today and BOOM! Found some cairns. Hooman was like, ‘oh look, pretty trail markers.’ But me? I was like, EXCUSE ME, cairns are literally our brand. We’re Cairn Canine Detection Historical Human Remains Detection Dogs™ thank you very much. Cairns whisper history, but guess what? My nose yells louder. Rocks point north, but I point straight to da secrets of da past. 🐾👃💨 I is four paws, two ears, and one super-sniffer archaeologist.

08/08/2025

Often when we work cemeteries, we don't get confirmation of our K9 TFR's. However, this week one of the cemeteries we have worked at the past few years uncovered an unknown, unmarked grave right where one of our dogs gave a TFR. You can see the pink flag right next to the uncovered stone in the salal bed of vegetation. This makes us happy! We look forward to continuing our work here as they still have areas to clear out for our dogs to search.

07/24/2025

True teamwork with a great group of DAR volunteers helping us place flags and documents findings. This partnership has only just begun.

07/02/2025

It is not every day you receive a personal thank you from your state AG Office. Today the Interim Indian Boarding School Report by the Truth and Reconciliation Task Force was issued and our work with our historically trained HRD dogs locating burials of children that attended the Fort Simcoe Native American Boarding School was mentioned along with recognition of our resource sharing with the Task Force over the last couple of years.

QUOTE: “I want to extend a heartfelt thank you to each of you. Your contributions to our work were invaluable and very appreciated. Your commitment to this project brought much new learning to both our understanding of Indian boarding school history and the ways in which our agency must evolve to support this work in a good way. My hands go up to each of you for your dedication and support.” https://www.atg.wa.gov/news/news-releases/preliminary-report-indian-boarding-school-history-lays-groundwork-dismantling to preliminary report:

SEATTLE — The Attorney General’s Office (AGO), under the guidance and leadership of a Truth and Healing Tribal Advisory Committee (TAC), released a preliminary report on the history of Indian boarding schools in Washington, outlining next steps the committee and the AGO will undertake as they ai...

05/31/2025

We are stoked to be partnering with Elke and Cari in trying to unveil the mysteries facing the burial space for 3260 people. Later this Summer we will be exploring the banks of the Duwamish River with our HHRD K9s.

05/25/2025

All our certified Historical Human Remains Detection K9s had the great opportunity to train with 2000 year old human bones this morning. Our K9s had no problem generalizing. Stoked.

05/23/2025

Several of our K9 teams are currently doing contract work for an out of state K9 survey project. So far we have been working in vineyards and will be spending next week in hazelnut orchards. Here getting their mapping records straight under a hazelnut tree while Kili is enjoying poppies and sniffing stuff out. Lucky us that we get to do this work with our K9 partners and good friends.