ASDA is requesting $4,520 for two projects:

September 26, 2013

Planet Dog Foundation
85 Bradley Drive
Westbrook, ME 04092
Dear Ms. Smith,

1. To cover the educational costs associated with

having our 15 member team SARTECH II certified
by the National Association of Search and Rescue.
2. To fund canine participation in two cancer
research studies by covering the resources
members need to bring the dogs to the lab.

Thank you for selecting American Scent Dog Association (formerly Arkansas Search Dog
Association) as a finalist for the Planet Dog Foundation Fall 2013 Grant Cycle. We are excited
about the success our organization has experienced this year, and we are hopeful that our
growth will be supported by Planet Dog Foundation.
Per your request, I have included the following materials for the Boards review:

Grant application (below)

Project Budget (attachment 1); supporting documents for budget (attachments 1a & 1b)
2013 financial statement (attachment 2)
ASDA 2013 annual report (attachment 3)
Media article supporting narrative (attachment 4)

Our work is deeply rooted in the belief that dogs are our allies; we are grateful that youre
considering being ours, too.
Warmly,
Donna Waugh
President, American Scent Dog Association
501.350.9090
Dr. Arny Ferrando
Training Officer, American Scent Dog Association and UAMS cancer researcher
713.702.0732
Alex Roberts
Communications and Media, American Scent Dog Association
501.908.1753

Specific goals and measurable outcomes for the project to be funded.

We are requesting assistance for two projects.
The first project requests a $3,520 grant from Planet Dog. ASDA plans to have our 15
members complete the Fundamentals of Search and Rescue course (FUNSAR),
challenge and pass the SARTECH II certification exam, and utilize the acquired skills
on the frequent searches we conduct.
FUNSAR is the National Association of Search and Rescue course designed to prepare searchers
to challenge the SARTECH II certification exam. Topics in the course include survival and support,
search, and rescue. The FUNSAR curriculum focuses on rural and wilderness environments, which
is quite appropriate for the state of Arkansas, where almost half (48%) of the states population
resides in rural areas.
As the most reputable canine search organization in Arkansas, it is our mission to provide fully
capable search and rescue assets to local and state law enforcement agencies. With more than
600,000 acres of lakes, 9700 miles of rivers and streams, and 2.4 million acres of forest, our
state can present a number of challenging and treacherous situations during search operations.
The second project requests an additional $1000 grant from Planet Dog that we will
use to increase our efforts in canine cancer detection.
ASDA dogs (and their handlers) voluntarily participate in two, multi-year studies aimed at
determining dogs reliability in identifying hard-to-diagnose cancers namely, thyroid and
ovarian. Our members and dogs are involved on a voluntary basis because they believe in the
uncanny, discerning power of a dogs nose. However, they unfortunately incur all travel, parking,
and related expenses that are required for them to participate. To date, we have successfully
transitioned the dogs alert capabilities to cancer detection and have clearly demonstrated their
ability to discriminate between cancerous and healthy body fluids. Our current efforts focus on
developing methodology to utilize canines as an adjunct to clinical treatment.
_________________________________________________________________________________________________
Evaluation methodology- how do you measure success? What is the rate of success in
your program? What quantifiable results can you share from last year? What
quantifiable results do you expect to achieve in the upcoming year? Please be very
specific, providing numbers and statistics to demonstrate your success rate.
Our successful training methods allow us to produce a fully operational detection
canine within a 30-60 day period. Fourteen dogs are trained for (live find) rescue searches
and twelve are cross-trained operational Search and Rescue recovery (cadaver/human remains
detection) canines. Three of these dogs are water cadaver capable.
We have virtually a 100% success rate of identifying the presence of human remains
on land, water, or in any structural environment. One of our dogs, John D, has just received
the American Humane Association National Hero Dog Award for Search and Rescue. This
honor was awarded in great part upon his demonstrated capability to find both lost individuals

and human remains. Our training methodology in search and rescue is now being innovatively
applied to the clinical detection of various forms of cancer.

ASDA dogs are currently involved in 2 medical research studies designed to examine
their reliability in the detection of ovarian and thyroid cancer in human tissues (e.g.,
blood, urine, saliva). Our efforts will determine their reliability in the detection of
these cancer types (and further, discerning these cancers from others) in hopes of
both early detection and the prevention of unnecessary surgical procedures. In the
upcoming months, we expect to complete reliability testing to examine the dogs
capability to alert on a hot or cancer-containing sample, as well as their ability to
distinguish specific cancer types (i.e., discern thyroid from lung cancer). We expect to
publish these results in scientific journals.
Further, ASDA was invited to partner with The Museum of Discovery in their premiere
event introducing innovative science to the public. ASDA was selected because of the
intense interest in our search and rescue dogs who have also been advanced to training in
human cancer detection. The dogs that currently find thyroid and ovarian cancers in the
research project at UAMS will be featured along with the physicians and scientists
who designed the studies. This is a high profile event designed to spark interest in
Arkansas' most innovative scientific advances. American Scent Dog Association is honored
to be chosen as a speaker and exhibitor for this exciting program, aptly named, SPARK!
In a ten-day period in March 2013, ASDA volunteers made multiple 250 mile round-trip
journeys to provide 43 hours of night searches, 14 hours of review, and 5 hours of
training while still fulfilling full-time job obligations.
In the last year, ASDA:

Signed on as the dog team for a neighboring county (Faulkner County) emergency
management response team and responded to 10 callouts, conducted 6 missing person
searches and 7 recoveries for that county.
Performed 24 educational seminars at rotary clubs, animal shelters, the Museum of
Discovery, childrens summer camps, and other popular community events.
Held 51 mandatory weekly training sessions.
Developed a canine aptitude test and handler profile that helps identify traits most
common in successful SAR team applicants. This lowered our attrition rate to less than 5%.
Responded to call-outs on Christmas Eve, Thanksgiving Day and Memorial Day weekend.
In our eleven-year history, we have not declined a single call out.

Provide specifics on where your dogs are obtained and your training methodology.
Dog selection:
The vast majority of dogs on our team have humble beginnings as shelter rescues. Even our
purebred dogs come from seemingly flawed lineage. Donated by breeders due to physical traits

eliminating them from the show rink, ASDAs dogs have demonstrated that the heart of the dog,
not the pedigree, is responsible for its character and courage.
ASDA is dominated by two main breed types German shepherd and Border Collie/Lab mixes.
While we encourage training to begin at an early age, we will train any dog that exhibits a strong
ability to work for reward and in concert with handlers.

Training Methodology:
With a basis in ethology, ASDA believes that the dogs teach us. This methodology is
centered on the dogs instinctual desire to detect and follow scent. We combine this with
classical conditioning to pair the search scenarios with a reward such as food, praise or play, so
that the dog quickly associates search work with a reward. We do not allow aversive training of
any kind. This same methodology has been successfully utilized when training our dogs to detect
ovarian or thyroid cancers. In fact, we have had such overwhelming success in this regard that
we have recently renamed ASDA to the American Scent Dog Association (from the Arkansas
Search Dog Association) to reflect an expansion of our skills and capabilities.
ASDA also focuses on the development of dog/handler communication skills. In
particular, handlers are taught to eliminate their human biases and trust the dog, which has
the relevant skill set. Handlers are taught to understand their dogs particular form of
communication/alert, and how to reinforce desired behavior.
ASDA consistently trains every weekend for 4-6 hours, unless the dangers of
thunder/lightening or heat exceeding 100 F are present. Our training consists of practice
searches and human remains detection exercises in rural and urban settings around the Little
Rock area. Training exercises are scripted to increase the dogs skill and comfort levels, and
include increasingly difficult scenarios. In addition to SAR training, dogs and handlers devote
additional time on a weekly basis to participate in clinical research studies on cancer detection.
Our team:
Our team is composed of highly skilled members with unique capabilities. Our team is also highly
educated, including several advanced degrees. One of our members, Dr. Arny Ferrando, in
addition to being a retired Army officer and pilot, is a clinical scientist conducting cancer
detection research utilizing our canines and training methodology. Our President is a SARTECH II
with a variety of FEMA certifications. In all, we have 3 members with active-duty Army
experience and relevant skill sets ranging from survival to training to operations to flying
expertise. Four separate members have Division of Laboratory Animal Medicine (DLAM)
certification. This advanced training is significant because it helps us recognize the earliest
symptoms of dogs stress (such as yawning), which ensures the safety of our teams. Our dogs
are NOT equipment; they do NOT spend their lives in crates or pens. ASDA dogs are cherished
working partners and family members. This is in stark contrast to the utilitarian function they fill
for many teams.
__________________________________________________________________________________________________
Specific budget request with detailed explanation of how funds will be spent and

accounted for, and additional sources of project support.

Attached.

Most recent audited financial statement for the projects parent organization, and, if
applicable, a 2013 Income Statement for the project to be funded.
Attached.
__________________________________________________________________________________________________
Most recent annual report and/or recent newsletter if your organization produces
them.
Attached.
__________________________________________________________________________________________________
List of your Board of Directors.
Donna Waugh, President
Terri Alpe, Treasurer
Dr. Arny Ferrando, Operations Officer
Alex Roberts, Dir. Media and Communications

501.350.9090
501.590.0457
713.702.0732
501.908.1753

__________________________________________________________________________________________________
Are there any ways in which your organization can help to publicize or promote a
grant from the Planet Dog Foundation?
Upon successful receipt of this grant, our web page will be updated to highlight the award, the
educational training provided with these funds, and the importance of these funds to our
organizational mission. As we have done in the past, sponsorship by Planet Dog will be
highlighted on our website (see address below), along with a description of services provided by
the grant.
We will seek press coverage to publicize receipt of this award and in so doing, underscore our
gratitude to Planet Dog while generating increased awareness of our mission, capabilities, and
requirements.
During community and professional presentations, we will be able to endorse the Planet Dog
Foundation and how their grant enabled ASDA to advance their K9 SAR service to the community.

The publication of results from our clinical research studies will disclose the financial support of
Planet Dog. In addition, due to the unique nature of these studies, frequent press releases and
coverage will highlight the collaborative support of Planet Dog.
Finally, if permissible, our future team shirts and K9 working harnesses will contain the Planet
Dog Foundation moniker surrounded by wording such as Im from Planet Dog or, Im a PLANET
DOG Dog or, Sponsored by Planet Dog Foundation. This is especially meaningful when media
captures the dogs efforts during large national searches. ASDA dogs have been featured around
the world on newspaper headlines and with television coverage.

You may also include any additional narrative information, client success stories,
photographs, press clippings, etc. If your program has a website, please include the
URL.
Website: http://www.scentdogassociation.com
Article and video about our dogs work in cancer research:
http://chicago.cbslocal.com/2012/12/06/cancer-sniffing-dogs-could-save-lives-researchers-say/
Local News article and video about John Ds Hero Dog success:
http://www.thv11.com/news/article/275249/2/Little-Rock-Dog-Gains-National-Recognition-ForSaving-Lives-and-Detecting-Cancer
Narrative 1:
ASDA cant explain the miracle of dogs; we just watch a hero at work from the end of
a leash.
See attached news coverage article.
Late fall of 2010, ASDA members arrived at a Pine Bluff, AR park. An older woman approached
one of our dogs, John D and asked if she could pet him. We readily agreed. After a few minutes of
hugging, patting and whispering in his ear, the woman thanked us and walked away.
We spent that afternoon in a boat on the water, searching for a missing man. Several of the
water cadaver dogs were drawn to a spot on the river and the dive team was notified.
When we pulled the boats back to shore, John D made a mad dash straight to the woman who
had hugged him. As soon as he got to her, he leaned hard against her legs. She bent down and
grabbed him tightly. After a moment, she looked up at us with tears in her eyes.
Before you got on the boat, I told this dog to please go bring my baby home. I told him
he was my only hope. I know your dog is telling me hes found my son.
He had. John D found the womans son, who had drowned two days before.
This story will be featured during the American Humane Associations National Hero Dog Awards
in October 2013 in Hollywood California. As a result of John Ds award, a production company

representing the Hallmark Channel spent 3 days in Little Rock filming all aspects of John Ds and
ASDA team performance. Of particular interest to the production crew were the techniques and
methodologies associated with both a search for a missing person and the recovery of human
remains. A recreation of John Ds discovery of the boys body, as described above, was filmed.
Narrative 2:
ASDAs K9s are utilized in cancer detection studies.
We have recently extended our innovative training techniques and dogs capabilities to detect
human-related scents by cross-training them to detect the presence of various cancer types in
body fluids and tissues. In two ongoing studies at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences
(UAMS), our dogs are being trained to detect the presence of ovarian and thyroid cancers. The
Hallmark Channel production crew dedicated an entire day to filming the innovative application
of our detection techniques to the area of cancer detection. The physicians and scientists
involved in the studies

investigating the canine detection of both ovarian and thyroid cancers were extensively
interviewed. Further, a training scenario involving John Ds detection and alert of positive cancer
samples was recreated. Thus, we expect a great deal of forthcoming national exposure due to
both John Ds award and our translation of detection techniques to clinical medicine.
The ovarian cancer study is under the guidance of a distinguished oncological gynecologist, Dr.
Alex Burnett. While ongoing, our experience to date indicates that our dogs are easily trained to
detect the presence of ovarian cancer. Current efforts are directed towards the determination of
their reliability in the detection of ovarian cancer in human tissues. Our President, Donna Waugh,
is a collaborator on this study and innovator of training methods used for cancer detection.
The second cancer study is lead by our team Operations Officer, Dr. Arny Ferrando, and
investigates the detection of thyroid cancer in saliva, blood, or urine of metastatic (malignant)
thyroid cancer patients. The potential advantage of canine detection is considerable, as
there is currently a great uncertainty surrounding thyroid cancer screening. At present
there is no screening method that can differentiate benign from malignant nodules. Once a
nodule is identified, current practice is to perform a fine needle aspiration biopsy; however this
method often yields an insufficient number of cells for complete diagnosis. Thus, multiple
biopsies are required, each entailing only an approximate 60% chance at proper diagnosis. As a
general rule, if a patient is not diagnosed after 3 attempts, they are then referred for surgical
removal of the nodule. However, the data indicate that almost 80% of thyroid surgeries were
NOT required. Thus, current diagnostic procedures entail a high probability of incomplete
diagnoses and a substantial possibility of unwarranted surgery. If the dogs detection of thyroid
cancer proves to be as reliable as their detection of human remains, as we anticipate, then a
large percentage of risky surgery and multiple biopsies can be avoided.
Our experience to date indicates that our dogs quickly learn the identification of thyroid cancer in
body fluids. This is contrary to current maxim, which states that dogs can only be trained to

identify one scent category. Our ongoing scientific efforts are directed towards reliability testing
to determine the dogs sensitivity (identification of a true positive cancer sample and specific
cancer type) and specificity (non-identification of true negative sample) in the identification of
thyroid cancer. Multiple body fluids are tested to facilitate ease of future diagnoses, as urine and
saliva samples represent non-invasive collections, and blood as a common standard for
diagnosis.
We believe that by utilizing our dogs that are already scent trained for the purposes of human
search and rescue; we will circumvent the substantial training time required for a nave dog.
Most importantly, we believe that the amazing scent and training capability of our
dogs may be utilized to improve clinical detection of certain cancers, and in turn,
minimize the anxiety, time, and expense associated with cancer treatment.