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Suzanne Elshult, MA has been active in K9 Search and Rescue (SAR) since 2001. She has held leadership positions with both the Snohomish County Volunteer Search and Rescue Team and Everett Mountain Rescue. She and her Labrador Retrievers Keb and Kili have deployed on hundreds of SAR missions ranging from disaster searches, urban searches looking for dementia subjects, to mountain and wilderness searches in all kinds of environments including avalanches. Suzanne has worked with K9 Keb since 2010. They have certified in Airscent, Human Remains Detection, Historical/Archeological search, Avalanche, First Responder, Disaster, and train in water search.

Suzanne has been recognized for her regional efforts to further collaboration in the K9 community and received the Washington State Search and Rescue Leadership Award in 2017. She is a Principal Evaluator in multiple K9 search and rescue disciplines with the National Search Dog Alliance. Suzanne is a founding member and Past President of Cascadia Search Dogs. Suzanne, and her dogs are actively deploying with the K9 Forensics Foundation and Mason County Search and Rescue in the mountains and communities of the Pacific Northwest and beyond.

She has an M.A. from the University of California, Santa Barbara and has devoted her professional career to building organizational leadership and emotional intelligence, first as a senior executive and later in her practice as a Transformational Coach working with hundreds of companies and senior leaders throughout the United States. Suzanne is a frequent public speaker at various events and is a Karen Pryor Professional Dog Trainer and Certified Training Partner and has coached working dog handlers locally as well as in British Columbia, Sweden and Denmark. She has authored articles on business and on K9 search and rescue.

Guy has a Ph.D. from the Department of Behavioral Neuroscience at Oregon Health Sciences University, and has done research at the University of Washington and the University of Illinois Medical School. He has presented at national and international SAR conferences, has lectured on hiking safety at REI classes, has presented international webinars on applied search theory, and has authored over a dozen scientific papers as well as several technical business articles.

K9 Keb was born in 2010, a few years before Suzanne’s first search and rescue dog Bosse retired. She was named Kebnekaise – Keb for short – after the highest mountain north of the Arctic Circle in Sweden. Keb was carefully selected for her working lines and while building drive had been a constant project with Bosse, it was a non-issue with Keb, who was always “full speed ahead.” It was Suzanne’s job to channel all that energy to help her become a solid search dog. She was quite a handful from the get-go and quickly earned a nickname: The Kebinator. She was initially trained as a wilderness airscent dog – trained to find lost people that are alive. Early on in her SAR career, Keb became introduced to human remains detection, a discipline she is still certified in and actively deploying on missions having just turned 11.

Book Description

A Dog’s Devotion is the unique, true-life story of a volunteer K9 search and rescue team in the Pacific Northwest. Readers will find themselves on the ground, with Suzanne, her faithful Labrador Retriever Keb, and her teammate Guy, as they search for lost souls in the shadows of disaster, crime, and tragedy. Their tales relate not the superficial glory and triumph seen on TV, but the real-life grit that SAR K9 teams encounter on every mission.

Their journey begins as they are called to search for victims in the cold mud and debris of the Oso Landslide, the largest natural disaster in recent Washington State history. Later, you will join them as they are inserted by helicopter to search high snowfields on Mount Rainier, or as they traverse steep, wilderness slopes searching for the clandestine grave of murder victims. You’ll accompany K9 Keb, as her keen nose leads to human remains in the forests of Washington State and as far away as the woods of Scandinavia.

This is a moving tale about being devoted to a cause, and trying to make a meaningful difference in the world. It’s a story of the search for the living and the dead: using hard-earned skills to find what remains of lost souls, to seek out justice, and always to bring them home. Above all, it is the moving story of finding purpose, being devoted to a cause, and the unbreakable bond between a woman and her dog that allows Suzanne, Guy, and Keb to evolve into a successful K9 team.

Reviews & Endorsements

Evy Dudey, Mountaineers, Board Member

This inside view of K9 Search and Rescue includes the grit of the colossal Oso, WA mudslide, the methods of rescue missions, the science of dog training, and the dedication of the humans involved. Every single chapter was suspenseful and engaging; I was continually compelled to keep reading to see what happened next. The emotions ranged from devastating to surprisingly laugh-out-loud funny! Whether or not you’re outdoorsy or own a dog, this is a good read!

Sally Olsen, President, Kitsap County Search Dogs

It takes a special kind of dog and human handler to search for human remains; a sad but essential task that must be done to give the families of the missing closure.

Suzanne Elshult is that kind of handler, and in the book she has written with co-author Guy Mansfield: A Dog’s Devotion, she provides a compelling and engrossing description of several missions she and her K9, Keb, have participated in, searching for the remains of persons who have gone missing or lost in tragic accidents such as the Oso landslide.

As a fellow K9 handler, I can wholeheartedly recommend this book to anyone who loves dogs, especially working dogs, to learn about the incredible bond that is created between handler and dog to create an effective search and rescue team.

Kevin Quinn, Graymountaineer, https://graymountaineer.wordpress.com

Reading the accounts of a series of different missions in this book, I found myself at times on the edge of my seat and at other times, depressed/stunned at some of the outcomes.  It is honest writing.  What is clear after reading this book is that a K9 team is more than the sum of its parts.  A K9 SAR dog, paired with their handler, guided by the search coordinator, when in the field, becomes a hybrid creature (part dog/part human), a guided missile if you will, capable of extraordinary things.  But this creature is not supernatural.  It lives in the real world with all its frustrations and foibles.

When you are finished reading this book you will have a true appreciation of the real effort that goes into the creation of such a unique resource, such a special and valuable tool. A compelling read.

Book Info

Title: A Dog’s Devotion: True Adventures of a K9 Search and Rescue Team

• Genre: Adventure Memoir
• Number of words or pages: 83,428 words with 12 illustrations
• Publisher and Release Date: Lyons Press, October 1, 2021. Currently available on Amazon.
• Format: Hardcover

Book Video Trailer: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DhC-mAi2QXo

Sample Excerpt from the Book:

The Oso Landslide Disaster

“Going on the last three days the most effective tool
has been dogs and just our bare hands
and shovels uncovering people.
“But the dogs are the ones that are pinpointing
a particular area to look, and we’re looking
and that’s how we’re finding people. “
Travis Hots, Fire Chief
Snohomish County District 21

“Load up!” I call. Keb jumps happily into the backseat of my car, and once again we’re a

girl and her dog, out to save the world. We head north toward the Oso Landslide Disaster scene, and to a search that will change many of us forever.

During the 2-hour drive north, my thoughts swirl with anxiety, excitement, and anticipation. Before leaving I make sure Keb is well fed. She has no clue what we’re about to face, but she’s no doubt noticing that I’m talking to her as if she is a human, a habit developed over the years when under stress. “What do you think, Kebbie. Are we ready for this? What should be our priority as we arrive on scene?” Voicing my thoughts out loud is helpful. Here, in the privacy of my car, it’s just the two of us, and I can avoid embarrassment from getting caught debating the pros and cons of search tactics with my dog. Keb is a great listener and sometimes vocalizes her concurrence or disagreement with little woofs, nudges, or lingering licks of my neck. Soon enough though, she is snoring softly in the back seat, as pre-mission anxiety is not an issue for her. Nearing the scene, I pass fire engines, rescue vehicles, and Washington State Patrol roadblocks. On the west side, a temporary search staging area has been set up on top of a hill. A larger, official incident command post has been set up in the town of Arlington.

As we pull up to a roadblock, a Washington State Patrol Officer sees the large “K9 SAR” decal on my vehicle and directs us to a parking place on the shoulder of the highway. I get out of my car, and the first thing I notice is a blue house in the distance. Something is not right. Why is it sitting on the highway? My gaze slowly rises, and My God! I see the slide itself, a massive open wound in the landscape that starts at the top of the hill and ends in a brown sea of mud before us. We’ve never searched in conditions like this. We’ve never even seen anything like this. My heart is thudding with anxiety. Oh, Kebbie, are we ready for this?

On this first deployment, we are yet four days into the incident. It is conceivable that there are survivors trapped in the debris, and there is still some hope that we will find them. I deploy Keb on her “find a live person” command so that her focus will be on the scent of living persons that might be buried. But because we have also trained in human remains detection for several years, I’m hoping that she will let me know if she detects the scent of a dead body. I can trust Keb to alert on a live person, but how will she communicate to me if she runs into the scent of the dead?

We’ve been watching closely as the firefighters slowly dig their way 5 feet deep into wreckage. Suddenly, I see Keb out of the corner of my eye, and realize I’ve temporarily lost track of what she is doing. Chiding myself for a handler error, I turn around and see her in a crouched, almost stalking position, circling slowly and cautiously in a mud-covered area 10 feet away. She keeps intermittently pawing the ground trying to move the soil. Clay and dirt fly from her digging. Keb is now sniffing intensely from different angles, pressing her nose into the ground, and taking another swipe at the dirt as she continues to circle the area. I’m still not seeing a “final trained response,” such as a sit or a bark, but there is a definitive change in behavior. It’s almost as if she is mesmerized by whatever she is pawing. I lean over to one of the firefighters standing right next to me, point to Keb, and ask, “Is it possible a body was lying there before it was airlifted?” He shakes his head “No,” walks over and starts carefully removing layers of mud. Moments later he stops, turns around, and just stares at Dan and me. We move closer, not knowing what to expect. I put Keb on her leash and watch as the firefighter takes out his water bottle, and with a gentleness I will always remember, starts washing mud off a face that is staring at us with the eyes of the dead.

Target Readers:

(1)  Broad Audience Appeal: Our genre is a growth market. Our core market comprises three substantial groups of readers: mysteries; lovers of dogs, and readers who are intrigued by tales of outdoor adventure.

Mystery lovers will be drawn to the details of search and rescue. 59 percent of the adults in the United States read mystery/crime books on a regular basis, and at $728 million, this category is one of the top three profitable book subgenres (source: Wikipedia, 2021). By its very nature, search and rescue presents fundamental mysteries: where is the lost person, will they be found in time, will they be saved? To that background of mystery, our stories add layers of intrigue by describing searches driven by disaster and crime: will buried victims be found, will criminals be brought to justice?

Dog lovers will enjoy reading about K9 Keb’s amazing abilities, about the intense training that she undergoes, and about the intense relationship between a SAR K9 handler and dog. Our book will appeal to an audience of 76 million families in the US who own dogs, and also to dog trainers, K9 handlers in law enforcement, and a large number of owners of working dog breeds.

Our book will appeal to readers who find inspiration in stories about dogs helping humans. After several years of societal challenges – Covid and toxic politics – the general population is fatigued and wants to believe there are still heroes and goodness in our country. A Dog’s Devotion is an inspiring story about the unbreakable bond between a woman and her dog as well as a story about finding inspiration and purpose.

Adventure seekers will find themselves immersed in tales of mountainous wilderness and the challenges of searching through thick forests or across steep slopes. Rich descriptions of the Washington Cascades add a unique atmosphere to each chapter. Our book will also appeal to SAR volunteers across a large SAR community, and hundreds of SAR organizations across the U.S, and internationally.

Latest Press Release

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Buying Info

Available from major booksellers such as Amazon and Barnes & Noble.

Interview Topic Ideas:

1. What inspired you to write this book?
2. How did you get started in search and rescue?
3. What is the hardest part of training a search and rescue dog? How long does it take?
4. What is the emotional impact of searching for, or finding, dead people?
5. Can any breed of dog be a search and rescue K9?
6. What is the role of a field support? How could someone get involved?
7. Are there special challenges for women in search and rescue?
8. What are you most proud of when you look back at your career in search and rescue?
9. Does Keb ever get to play?

News Pegs

Search and rescue missions in our part of the country were at the highest level ever in 2020 due to COVID-19, and the number of inexperienced people seeking out outdoors pursuits such as hiking, climbing and backcountry skiing.

• New scientific discoveries in DNA research have resulted in more law enforcement requests for K9 human remains detection dogs trained for cold searches.
• Climate change is resulting in more disasters and need for K9s trained for these kinds of events.
• Technology advancements, such as the use of drones, ground-penetrating radar, robotics, and satellite communications are driving significant advances in search and rescue.
• K9 training is changing rapidly as a result of new science-based research. This is impacting how we select and train search and rescue dogs.
• The advent of human composting (and distribution of human remains compost in the landscape) may negatively impact the ability of K9s to find the bodies of crime and accident victims.
• The # of body farms across the United States are growing in number and allowing human remains detection dogs to take advantage of science and better training opportunities.