Linda Murphy

With nearly 40 years of experience in canine training, she commenced her career with obedience training and trialing breeds such as Boxer - CD, Doberman CD, and German Shepherd CDX. In the early 1990s, she served as the Obedience Trial Chair for the Delaware County Kennel Club. Throughout her career, she explored various dog sports before finding her passion in Search and Rescue (SAR), which allowed her to combine her affinity for the outdoors with a deep understanding of canine olfactory abilities. For 25 years, she dedicated herself to SAR—initially conducting live find searches, then transitioning to Human Remains Detection (HRD) when her dog exhibited a particular aptitude and enthusiasm for this complex discipline.

She is a founding member of PA Recovery Dogs and has held the positions of Vice President and Training Director at West Jersey K9 SAR. She had the privilege of being mentored by Andy Rebmann and was honored to serve as an instructor for K9 Specialty Search Associates. Since 2003, she has been an HRD instructor for the PA SAR Council and has conducted seminars nationwide. Additionally, she has served as an evaluator for both New Jersey and Pennsylvania SAR council dog testing, and contributed to SAR K9 standards committees in both states.

In 2012, she participated in a PhD dissertation on Human Remains Detection as one of fifty teams selected across the country. Her team worked on historic Indian burial grounds in Mississippi, where their dogs successfully indicated the locations of 600+-year-old graves, later verified by Ground Penetrating Radar, and assisted in archaeological excavations.

Over four decades, she has completed workshops with leading experts such as Bob Bailey, Turid Rugass, Patricia McConnell, Suzanne Clothier, Chris Zink, Brenda Aloff, and numerous detection dog trainers. In 2010, following the introduction of Nosework sport to the East Coast by NACSW, she was invited by one of its founders to become a judge and subsequently completed the CNWI program in July 2011.

Upon retiring from a lengthy career in Civil Engineering at Amtrak, she joined DTCCC as a Nosework instructor. Her engineering expertise, combined with extensive experience observing and training dogs, has enabled her to excel in identifying subtle canine behaviors during search activities, making this role particularly well-suited to her skills and interests.

She currently participates in NW and tracking with her two GSDs, Enzo (retired HRD K9) and Dozer (AKA Joy Boy).