Bob Deeds was active in search and rescue since his start with Search One Rescue Team, in the early 90’s, to his final deployment, with Texas-Task Force One, at the end of 2015. With Search One Rescue Team, Bob was called out on over one-hundred-fifty local searches. In 2000, Bob was hired by Texas–Task Force One, one of twenty-eight state and federal urban search and rescue teams that respond to federal disasters for FEMA, under Homeland Security. As a “Canine Search Specialist”, Bob certified two Live Find USAR dogs and a Human Remains Detection USAR dog. By the end of his career, Bob deployed to over 30 state/federal deployments. These included (but were not limited to) The World Trade Center, Hurricanes Katrina & Ike, the 2014 Moore OK Tornado, the OSO WA Mudslide, and his final deployment, tornados that devastated the Garland & Rowlett TX areas during his last four days of active duty.

Bob, and his wife Karen, owned and operated “Canine Connection”, a boarding and training facility outside of Fort Worth, TX from 2004 until the end of 2021. For the last four years they were in Texas, that had twenty-five to thirty-five dogs in training, at any given time. In 2022, they moved to the lower Shelby Forest in TN where their focus has turned more to coaching trainers and handlers.

Together, they have done numerous seminars dealing with behavior and training. In 2007 Bob began to develop a new sport called GEOScenting…Utilizing the framework for Geocaching, dogs are taught to locate caches that are scented with Clove Oil. Bob held an instructors’ workshop for GEOScenting, in 2012, and certified 12 qualified instructors in the Dallas/Fort Worth area. He recently developed a “badge” for Dog Scouts of America, in that sport. Bob was a guest presenter and ran workshops on USAR directional control at the 2013 Penn Vet Working Dog Conference, held at Purina Farms, in Grey Summit, MO. He currently holds detection seminars and nose work seminars, both locally and nationally.

In 2005 and 2006, Bob and his K9 partner, Kinsey, worked with British USAR teams from “Her Majesty’s Royal Fire Service” Their task was to show how USAR detection dogs are utilized in disaster environments at, TEEX’s, “Disaster City” (located at Texas A&M). At “Disaster City”, Bob also taught a “Canine Search Specialist Course”. For eight years, Bob was an evaluator with FEMA, setting up tests and certifying USAR teams for domestic and foreign deployment. During his last two years as an evaluator, he was a lead evaluator. Bob has been a judge for NACSW, since 2015, judging trials in multiple states. In April of 2018, he presented at the ‘International Association of Animal Behavior Consultants’ conference, held in Boston, MA, on the utilization of behavior medication in the U.S. Military, Working Dog Program. Bob was the interim training director for Ground Zero Emergency Training Center the last few months of 2022, prior to he and Karen moving Canine Connection to Tennessee.

When Bob first started training dogs, like most trainers his age, he started with traditional techniques. Bob reached a great degree of success, but in 1998, he was exposed to a “Clicker” for the first time. Bob fell in love with the clicker and his instructor, Karen Vass (now his wife, Karen Deeds), and began a five-year odyssey into the world of operant and classical conditioning. Bob began to “cross-over” into this whole new world. Bob attended multiple Chicken Workshops seminars under Bob Bailey, who Bob credits as “the person that most influenced his training skills”. Bob currently teaches his own Chicken Workshops with Robin Greubel at K9 Sensus in Lucas IA. Bob is also a Scout Troop leader of Mid-South DSA, Troop #250, in the tri-state area near Memphis TN.

Bob competed in Mondioring, with his 94-pound Malinois, Mogens (Dutch for ‘POWER’). Bob is one of a handful of people in the United States that trained this incredibly intense bite sport, without the use of compulsion. He titled out in AKC Rally, with his USAR dog, K9 Gracie.

LEARN FROM BOB

Below you will find the online courses, seminars, webinars, eBooks, video reviews and private video consultation services Bob offers through Scent Work University.