American Rettungshunde Sport Association

Bill Dotson began dog training in 1971 when he and his wife became interested in AKC obedience. In 1975 he transitioned to Schutzhund (German protection dog sport) and then in 1977 founded the California Rescue Dog Association. He was the training director of that association for several years.  He earned "Mission Ready" status +in 1977 with the Swiss Disaster Dog Association after training in Switzerland. From 1978 to 1980, he assisted the Davis California police department as a volunteer police dog team. After moving to Virginia, Bill joined Dogs East and was an operational member from 1982 to 1997. During his long canine career, Bill has responded to a very long list of national and international disasters. Because of his experience, he was tasked with helping FEMA develop their criteria for FEMA Disaster Task Force dog teams. He also worked with  Virginia Task Force 2 (VA-TF2) to develop their K9 teams.  Bill is a regular speaker and seminar leader on Search and Rescue, Disaster and Cadaver search dogs. He has acted as an advisor to numerous search and rescue teams around the world. He is also the founder and President of Applied K9 Technologies.