TEAMWORK

Ryan Root and Buck

Qualifications: Wilderness Air Scent
Handler:  Ryan has been with FRRD since 2001. Ryan is a middle school humanities teacher for Boulder Valley School District at Meadowlark School in Erie. In his spare time, Ryan enjoys gardening, exercise and restoring a 1959 Austin Healey "Bug-eye" Sprite. Ryan resides with his wife, Ann, two boys, and their two dogs, two cats, and chickens. Buck is Ryan’s third dog to be qualified with FRRD.
Canine:  Buck is an old-world (smooth coat) Border Collie out of Sheridan, Wyoming. Buck's family are all working dogs, mostly on sheep and cattle ranches, and some also compete in agility. One half brother (same mother) is a search and rescue dog with the Mesilla Valley Search and Rescue team out of Las Cruses, New Mexico. The reputations of these little working dogs—their unwavering focus, the drive to work all day and night, their agility and athleticism, their no-nonsense temperament, and, yes, their obsessive-compulsive leanings—were just the prerequisites for the suddenly extreme conditions, topography and situations that typify search work in Boulder County and across Colorado.

Roger Matthews and Finn

Qualifications: Wilderness Air Scent
Handler:  Roger joined FRRD in 2017 after having been involved with both wilderness and urban search and rescue since 2001. He currently works as a family physician in Conifer, Colorado. In addition to being a FRRD canine handler, he is a member of Park County Search and Rescue, and Colorado Task Force One - U.S.A.R. He has been deployed to numerous wilderness SAR missions throughout the region as well as several national disasters including Hurricane Katrina, Ike, Gustov, Irma, and the Boulder/Lyons Flood in 2013. Roger is currently fielding his 3rd qualified search dog, Finn, and training a pup, Brodie.  When not participating in SAR activities Roger enjoys teaching wilderness medicine, mountain biking, rally racing, backpacking, skiing or snowboarding, and spending time on horseback.
Canine: Finnegan ("Finn") is a sable colored English Shepherd from Longmont who was initially supposed to end up in North Dakota herding cattle. When that transition fell through, he was adopted by Roger and quickly excelled at his new job as a Search and Rescue Dog. He has been fielding on wilderness missions with Park County SAR since 2015 and requalified for airscent fieldwork with FRRD in 2017. Finn loves spending time with his human and canine SAR teammates, and riding on anything that has wheels or otherwise moves although UTV's and snowmobiles are his top choices. 

Ann Brown and Rusty

Qualificaitons: Wilderness Trailing
Handler: Ann became a member with FRRD in 2019. Prior to this she has been involved with fire/rescue as a Paramedic and firefighter since 2000. She has been involved with search and rescue as a dog handler since 2004. She currently works as a Physician Assistant at a family practice clinic in Conifer, CO. Her previous search dog, a golden retriever named Monty, was certified in wilderness air scent.
Canine: Rusty is an English Shepherd who takes his job of trailing seriously. When not working he loves long hikes in the mountains and playing with his stuffed toy crab.

Jenny Paddock and Ihu

Qualifications: Wilderness Air Scent, Urban, Cadaver, and Avalanche
Handler: Jenny has been involved in search and rescue in Boulder County since 1989. Jenny grew up in Boulder and knows the county very well. She is an officer with the City of Boulder Police Department.  Through her involvement in the Rocky Mountain Rescue Group, Jenny was recruited to be a training and test search victim for FRRD. The experience gained as a mock search subject, then Field Support Member, led her to her first search dog, Tika.
Cainine: Ihu (Hawai’ian for “nose”) is yet another of the historically useful chocolate pocket labs.  She has boundless energy, a very strong search drive and an insatiable willingness to chase tennis balls.  

Roger Matthews and Brodie

Qualifications: Wilderness Air Scent, Avalanche
Handler:  Roger joined FRRD in 2017 after having been involved with both wilderness and urban search and rescue since 2001. He currently works as a family physician in Conifer, Colorado. In addition to being a FRRD canine handler, he is a member of Park County Search and Rescue, and Colorado Task Force One - U.S.A.R. He has been deployed to numerous wilderness SAR missions throughout the region as well as several national disasters including Hurricane Katrina, Ike, Gustov, Irma, and the Boulder/Lyons Flood in 2013. Roger is currently fielding his 3rd and 4th qualified search dogs, Finn and Brodie.  When not participating in SAR activities Roger enjoys teaching wilderness medicine, mountain biking, rally racing, backpacking, skiing or snowboarding, and spending time on horseback.
Canine: Brodie is a sable colored English Shepherd dog who is 4 years younger than his older Brother Finn. Though both from the same parents, Brodie is quite a different dog. He is extremely athletic and loves to run and race any dog that cares to take him on. Brodie qualified in Wilderness Air Scent with FRRD in the summer of 2019. When he isn't working he loves to ride on anything that moves including tractors, ATV's, and snowmobiles. His favorite food is roasted cauliflower.

John Kirkpatrick and Echo

Qualifications: Wilderness Air Scent, Urban, and Cadaver
Handler: John joined FRRD in 2006 after watching his wife, Terrie, be a part of search and rescue for several years. John has a degree in Geophysical Engineering from Colorado School of Mines. After retiring as CIO and a VP of a large financial transactions company, he started his own computer and financial security consulting company. John is also a founding member of the Longmont Civilian Volunteer Patrol, part of the Longmont, CO Police Department.
Canine: Brandywine’s Rocky Mountain Echo (Echo) is a seal and white English Shepherd. Echo loves to play with his Aunt Tia, Terrie’s dog, but he takes his job of searching very seriously. His unbounded energy and enthusiasm help get him through long days of searching. John and Echo are working on qualifying in Avalanche.

Darby Segervall and Ruby

Qualifications: Wilderness Air Scent
Handler: Darby joined FRRD in 2021. She was born and raised in Annapolis, Maryland. She received her BA degree in Integrative Physiology from the University of Colorado Boulder, where she was an athlete of the CU Freestyle Ski team. Darby is currently working in the orthopaedic medical device industry as a PMCF Project Manager/ Clinical Research Scientist. In her free time, she enjoys skiing, backpacking, climbing, and many other outdoor activities. Ruby is Darby’s first search dog.
Canine: Ruby is a field line Golden Retriever who began her SAR career when she was 12 weeks old. Ruby is exceptionally agile, has a strong work ethic, and loves people! She certified in wilderness air scent at 2.5 years old. Ruby is also training for her HRD certification. When she is not working, she enjoys playing with her sister, Chessie, climbing mountains, and dock diving. Full of energy and spice, Ruby is not just a skilled SAR partner but also a smart and lovable character who keeps us entertained with her daily antics.

Jeff Sparhawk
Jeff has been involved in search and rescue since roughly 1988. He was a handler with both Kiyla and Hiydn. Jeff is also a long time member of Rocky Mountain Rescue Group. Outside of Boulder County, Jeff has served many years as a Director for the Colorado Search and Rescue Association and as Region Chair for the Rocky Mountain Region of the Mountain Rescue Association. With these nonprofits Jeff has had the good fortune to be able to balance work in the boardroom and time in the mountains on search and rescue operations, leading trainings at local, regional and national conferences, and evaluating search dog and mountain rescue teams throughout the west. Jeff now juggles a small son and running a solo law practice.

Bella Trachtenberg
Bella started with FRRD in 2022 while a student at CU Boulder. Since moving to Boulder to pursue an education with the ultimate goal of becoming an emergency medicine physician, she has spent what free time she has adventuring outside. Running, skiing, hiking, kayaking, and mountain biking, give Bella time to think freeley and create new ideas to bring back to the rescue team and academic studies. She enjoys relating her studies to lessons learned in rescue to come at problems pulling from a more divers area of knowledge. She is currently training Ralph.

Erin Manning
Erin joined FRRD in 2024. Her love for the outdoors stemmed from growing up in the mountains and rivers of Durango, CO and is sustained by escaping the Boulder area to explore the Front Range wilderness. When she's not hiking, skiing or training with Freya, she is busy being a mom of two active boys.

April Walker-Stemple
April began her career in search and rescue in late 2001 when she joined FRRD. She is currently a member of two separate Search and Rescue teams based in Colorado, Front Range Recue Dogs and Colorado Task Force One (COTF1). The FRRD team focuses on Wilderness Search and Rescue and COTF1 focuses on Urban Search and Rescue. April worked for West Metro Fire Protection, the sponsoring agency for COTF1, for many years. With this group she has been deployed to hurricanes “Katrina”, “Rita”, “Gustaf”, and “Ike” as well as the Lower North Fork Forest Fire, and the Front Range Floods in Colorado. April was a handler with Ankh.

Lexi White
Lexi joined FRRD in 2023. When she’s not training dogs, you can find her on her mountain bike or snowboard (usually with a dog in tow). For her day job, Lexi works as a Creative Director at Outside where she spends most of her day working to get more people to spend more time in the great outdoors. As for her search and rescue teammate, Lexi is training Murray, the loudmouth hound dog, who loves training with his brother Gonzo.

Evan Davis
Evan joined FRRD in 2024. He is from Colorado and has immense pride for his home state. Evan has spent his time as an outdoor guide for various organizations around Colorado and as a snowcat operator in the winter. He is now pursuing certification through the American Mountain Guide Association to be a full-time mountain guide for the front range. Evan enjoys climbing, snowboarding, and playing the banjo. Evan’s trusty companion and training partner is a 100lbs howling Bloodhound named Otis. Otis loves searching for all his friends and drenching them in slobber. Evan and Otis are excited and grateful to be part of FRRD.

Kristen Gruca
Kristen’s search and rescue journey started FRRD in 2016 with her german shepherd puppy, Eiko. In addition to FRRD, she is also a member of Rocky Mountain Rescue Group, Boulder County’s Mountain Rescue team. Kristen works as a freelance broadcast engineer traveling both US and internationally on large-scale sporting events and as a local dog trainer. She also spends time in the Grand Canyon as a backpacking guide. She is currently training a young and spirited Dutch Shepherd named Quest.

Ian Forsyth
Ian became a FRRD field member in 2023. Born and raised in Buffalo, NY he moved to Boulder in 2019 to spend more time in the mountains. His love of fitness and recreating in the outdoors extends to his work-life, where he's a software engineer at Strava. Beyond search and rescue, Ian spends his time backpacking, skiing in the backcountry, and running ultramarathons. He also sews for fun, making prototype gear for all his outdoor endeavors. He's currently training Gonzo, his trusty (and loud) Bluetick Coonhound.

Russel Martin
Russel joined FRRDs in 2021. He is a retired physicist and systems engineer. In Silicon Valley, he led research teams working on displays, imagers, and sensors. He has over 20 years of experience in industrial emergency response, doing hazmat, USAR, and medical. Before transplanting from California he served in San Mateo County Search and Rescue. Beyond search and rescue, his interests include hiking, camping, cycling, XC and backcountry skiing, woodworking, and home brewing.

Blake Bittner
Blake joined FRRD in 2023. He grew up in St. Louis, Missouri, but moved to Colorado in 2011 for the love of the outdoors. He enjoys snowboarding, camping, rafting, and hiking. Blake is a Validation Engineer in Boulder. His teammate in training is Lily!

Quest and Kristen
Quest is a handsome and goofy Dutch Shepherd. His favorite things are: his mom, playing tug, and running around in the woods. 

Murray and Lexi

Murray is a spunky Bluetick Coonhound who loves nothing more than to hoot and holler about all his favorite things: searching, sunshine, scratches, smooches, sardines, and sending it on the slopes.

Otis and Evan
Otis is an energetic and slobbery Bloodhound. You can usually find Otis bathing in the sun, listening to classical music or dunking his head in water and making a very wet trail wherever he walks.

Elli and Ann
Ellie is a Golden Retriever. Her favorite activities include working, playing hard with her best friend Rusty, and getting hugs from her favorite people.

Gonzo and Ian
Gonzo, a Bluetick Coonhound, originally bred to hunt bears and mountain lions, now is learning to find lost people instead. In his off-hours he loves long hikes, frisbee, and ski days.

Rowdy and Darby
Rowdy, a spirited field line Golden Retriever, is cousin to K9 Ruby. He is a lively and intelligent puppy who adores playing tug and has a bright future ahead as he embarks on his training journey.

Riyka and Jeff
Riyka is the niece of four prior FRRD search dogs. Starting at 8 weeks old, she has a long path ahead of her to become certified as Jeff’s third search dog.

Lily and Blake
Lily is a Border Collie/Great Pyrenees that loves searching and being silly (aka Silly Lily)! When she is not searching, Lily enjoys rolling in the snow and long naps in the sun.

Ralph and Bella
Ralph is a rescue who has taught Bella to face every problem with complete enthusiasm and effort. In turn, Bella is teaching Ralph to help those who might need a rescue (and that mud doesn't always need to come in the house).

Freya and Erin
Freya is a half German Shepard, half Boxer rescue dog who loves to go everywhere and will take on any task you ask of her. She can often be found carrying huge sticks (the bigger the better), snuggling and romping through the woods. 

Kiyla (Jeff Sparhawk, Handler)
Kiyla was bred by Jeff’s mom in Connecticut. Kiyla’s brother Argos and sisters Tika and Chapin qualified as FRRD search dogs. Kiyla was a constant and completely reliable companion. She needed almost no training, figuring out obedience and search skills with little direction. They had difficulty passing tests because they kept finding the subjects too quickly thus nulling the tests. Kiyla qualified in Wilderness Air Scent before she was 2, and Water and Avalanche before she was 3. With more successful finds than Jeff can remember she fielded on well over a hundred searches in many wonderful areas of Colorado. Kiyla was also a pretty good mountaineer and rock climber having summited hundreds of peaks and easy routes. They were members of the Flight For Life, Avalanche Deployment Team for years and Kiyla was very comfortable in helicopters and boats, on snowmobiles, ATVs, and chairlifts.  She helped Jeff teach at many SAR academies and trainings. Kiyla was a great canine team player in that she was very adept at showing other search dogs how the game is played and was often used to help the newer pups when they got stuck with a concept.  Kiyla was a once-in-a-lifetime partner.

Ankh (April Walker, Handler)
Ankh is a German Shepherd who loved searching.  Ankh and April attended many trainings around the country learning various skills. In addition to their work in Wilderness Air Scent, April and Ankh trained extensively in Water and Human Remains.

Buster (Ryan Root, Handler)
Buster was a pointing lab that was a little too rambunctious for a quiet life in the suburbs. After several barking citations, chewed-up table legs and dug-up carpets, his previous caretakers donated Buster to Ryan and Front Range Rescue Dogs in hopes of finding a positive channel for his energy. Wilderness search and rescue is a demanding trade, requiring the strength to charge through thickets and willow bogs, the endurance to cover hundreds of off-trail acres, and the discipline to work off-leash amongst all the wildlife distractions; it was just the ticket for Buster. Buster was able to locate two separate drowning victims, and picked-up a trail for a person missing for three days in Rocky Mountain National Park, establishing a direction of travel that guided a helicopter toward finding the lost person. Sadly, Buster's career was cut short due to blindness, brought on by progressive retinal atrophy, and epilepsy.

Hiydn (Jeff Sparhawk, Handler)
Hiydn was Jeff’s second search dog. A faithful female chocolate lab from the same European bloodlines as 5 other FRRD dogs. Originally Jeff’s wife, Lisa, was going to qualify with Hiydn but when Lisa became pregnant, Jeff took over and qualified with Hiydn. Hiydn was qualified in Wilderness Air Scent and Avalanche. She was one of the more difficult dogs to “read” as she liked to communicate in many different ways. Regardless, Hiydn’s first search resulted in her finding a deceased individual after other non-canine rescuers walked within 15’ of him. Hiydn was also a member of the Flight for Life Avalanche Deployment team. She never got a chance to deploy but she was always happy to be out in the snow. Her search command was “Hiydn - go seek.”

Rascal  (John Kirkpatrick, Handler)
Rascal, a Border Collie mix, was adopted from the Longmont Humane Society at 1½ years old. She picked up search work really quickly and had a natural talent for it. Before qualifying with John in Wilderness Air Scent, Rascal qualified with John’s wife Terrie as Wilderness Air Scent Team for FRRD in August, 2006. They also Qualified in Evidence. Rascal was the first dog in FRRD to be Qualified with two people.  She also trained in Human Remains and Water. Rascal was a part of many interesting searches – her first search was for a missing ranger in Rocky Mountain National Park. She had been flown into searches in helicopters. She helped search for human remains and airplane parts in two different plane crashes.  In one crash, among other things, she located the “black box” that the NTSB needed to help with their investigation. The “black box” is something the about the size of an SD card, and the plane wreckage was spread over 2/3 of a mile by 1/3 of a mile. Along with numerous wilderness searches, Rascal helped in water searches, fire investigations, and urban missions. 

Bally (Jenny Paddock, Handler)
Ballotin, as in a box of chocolates, is another chocolate “pocket lab” related in some way to most of the chocolate labs that have been a part of FRRD.  She was eager and enthusiastic when it came to her search work. Bally was qualified in Wilderness Air Scent, Urban and Cadaver.

Tika (Jenny Paddock, Handler)
Tika, middle sister of FRRD qualified dogs Kiyla, Argos, and Chapin, first Qualified in Wilderness Air Scent in 1996 and later in Avalanche.  Jenny and Tika were members of the Flight For Life, Avalanche Deployment Team for years. Tika was a steady search companion and patient teacher of handlers and pups alike. Tika and Jenny were often assigned the “hard” areas to search because of their ability to meticulously read the winds over difficult terrain and cover the area thoroughly.

Scout (Ryan Root, Handler)
Scout was a mixed breed, 10 month old puppy found on the Navajo reservation in Arizona. He ended up at Best Friends Animal Sanctuary where he joined their "Canines With Careers” program, which recognized his high drive and willingness to bond. Having looked at over 700 dogs from local shelters and at Best Friends', as well as all the surrounding shelters, Ryan decided to take a chance with Scout. The bet paid off: Scout turned out to be a quick study, and he ultimately qualified in Wilderness Air Scent, Trailing, Evidence, Urban, Cadaver and Avalanche. One couldn't ask for a better ambassador to the public; Scout adored children and loved to show off.