Heidy Drawdy

Heidy Drawdy is an experienced dog instructor, handler and evaluator teaching at local colleges, universities and various Search and Rescue seminars.  Heidy's passion for working with dogs started early in life when, at the age of 16 years old, she trained her family dog basic obedience in the basement one winter while living in Chicago Ill.  Heidy began competing professionally in AKC in the dog obedience and confirmation world around 1983 while working as a senior veterinarian technician and working part time at D' Horne Kennels teaching article search and advanced obedience.

Having the desire to help others and give back, Heidy entered into the realm of search and rescue in 2001.  This involved decades of training symposiums, becoming certified with Law Enforcement Training Specialists (LETS), North American Police Work Dog Association (NAPWDA), National Narcotic Detector Dog Association (NNDDA),  National Association For Search and Rescue (NASAR) as a SAR Tech II and SAR Tech II K-9 as well as First Responder.  

Heidy has since taken her nationally certified (HRD)  dogs on multiple missions for missing persons throughout the United States, working with a variety of agencies including the FBI, GBI, DNR, as well as other law enforcement and county Emergency Management affiliates throughout the region.  Heidy has also worked on international searches with Global DIRT.  These deployments include a variety of searches ranging  from  airplane crashes, lake and river drowning, human remains recovery  to national disasters starting with Hurricane Katrina.  

 It was not enough for Heidy to just train her canine in HRD.  Heidy has also trained canines in air sent, USAR, Delta Society and has also worked and trained a Narcotic detector dog for several years.  Heidy is also currently a member of the Georgia Body Recovery Team (GBRT) under the Georgia Bureau of Investigation and  South Georgia Search Dogs.