New Kitimat search dog boosts Northwest rescue capacity

New Kitimat search dog boosts Northwest rescue capacity

Published 2:30 pm Thursday, October 1, 2026

When someone goes missing in the Northwest, search crews now have another powerful tool to help cover more ground, follow scent and potentially bring answers faster to families and communities.

Solo, a German shepherd handled by Joelle Marsh, a member of Kitimat Ground Search and Rescue, has successfully completed a wilderness search test conducted by the RCMP, making him Kitimat’s first validated search and rescue dog and one of only two serving northern B.C.

“This is about being a resource for our community and the entire northwest,” Joelle said.

“In our area, with our terrain, there is so much ground to cover in a ground search and rescue operation. Having a dog is basically having a force multiplier,” she said. “They can cover the ground quickly and pick up scents when we can’t even see the person.”

Solo is expected to serve as a resource for search and rescue organizations across the Northwest, regardless of where a call originates. Kelly Marsh, a search manager with KSAR, said the team can be deployed through mutual aid, work under the RCMP search and rescue umbrella and assist during community emergencies such as an earthquake.

“It’s a great resource and opportunity,” Kelly said.

Kelly said search and rescue members are trained in human tracking, but bringing a scent dog into a search can significantly increase what a team is able to cover. While human trackers may have to work slowly and methodically through terrain looking for signs of a person’s passage, a trained dog can follow scent over a much wider area and move through ground far more quickly — a potentially crucial advantage in life-and-death situations.

“Having a dog that goes by scent is way faster and it could bring resolve to a missing person search quite a lot faster.”

The only other validated search dog in the region is based in Houston. Joelle has trained with that dog’s handler, who Kelly said was instrumental in helping prepare her to work with Solo.

For Joelle, becoming a K9 handler brought together two things that had long been important to her. She has always had dogs and wanted a working dog, while her years with Kitimat Ground Search and Rescue gave that ambition a natural purpose.

“Somebody told me if you get a working dog and don’t give it a job, it will find its own and you’re probably not going to like it,” she said.

Just over a year ago, Joelle committed to the idea and bought Solo from a breeder at nine weeks old. After he was assessed and showed the qualities needed for search work, he was accepted into the BC Search Dog Association program.

Joelle has since travelled twice to Merritt and once to Osoyoos for training and exercises, investing significant personal time and money in the process. Solo recently passed his validation assessment and was singled out by an assessor as having strong potential for his search and rescue career.

The training will continue. Solo must be reassessed by the RCMP each year and maintain the obedience and motivation required to work for long periods.

“We ask a lot of our dogs,” Joelle said. “They can work for a full day, so they have to really want to.”

That means balancing serious training with making sure Solo still enjoys the work.

Joelle will be Solo’s only handler. Off duty, she said, he is a normal, affectionate dog. But when he is working, she hopes people will give him the same space and respect they would give a police dog and let him focus on the job he was trained to do.