Tag: Pet Detection

Guest post by Landa Coldiron

I’m a Bloodhound Handler. I’ve been using my bloodhounds to find lost pets for 18 years.

I recently had a book published by Austin Macauley about my work as a pet detective. It is a work of ‘faction,’ as I like to call it. Some stories are true, some are fiction, and some are combined (real and made up).

It is titled ‘The Bloodhound Handler—Book One: Adventures of a Real-life Pet Detective.’ Like people, in search and rescue, search dogs are used for a direction of travel that can locate the pet, provide evidence, clues, and eyewitnesses, and /or target a search area where resources can be deployed.  In my book, I wrote about these abilities in stories, using the character Kalinda Dark as me.

My book is currently available on Amazon as a paperback or Kindle. It is a great action adventure with some mystery and has had many positive reviews. It has also been featured at Barnes & Noble.

I wrote the book a few years ago after my first bloodhound, Ellie Mae, died. She was young, and it took me by surprise. I knew I had to write about her and our life together.  Ella Mae won the 2011 California Veterinary Medical Association Animal Hall of Fame award for her work in finding lost pets.

Writing The Bloodhound Handler book took me three years of writing every day and another two years of rejections. Finally, I got an offer from a publisher!

The book also contains stories about Glory, my second bloodhound. She won the American Humane Search Dog of the Year in 2015. It was a national award over a weekend at the Beverly Hilton. Many celebrities were in attendance. Glory won over 500 other dogs in the category.

We were also flown to Washington, DC, to speak in front of a small congressional hearing on the lost pet problem in America. You can search her name on YouTube under American Humane, and you will find her story. It is really something. Glory has a Facebook following of over 16,000 people!

Thanks to anyone who supports my book. If you are an avid Kindle reader it is only $4.50 and even has colored pictures.

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Landa Coldiron is a two-time award-winning bloodhound handler in Los Angeles. Her website and Facebook are Lost Pet Detection, and her Instagram is @thebloodhoundhandler.

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NOTE from Jackie: I knew and wrote about Landa for a newspaper when I lived only blocks from her in Shadow Hills. I was privileged to watch Ellie Mae in action and learn about what pet owners can do when their pet goes missing. (The book covers this too.) 

Landa has also owned and trained Cadaver Dogs for her work. 

The Bloodhound Handler book is a fascinating read. It follows cases of lost (or stolen) pets from the first panicked telephone call through the process to the ending, which is sometimes joyous and thrilling and sometimes disheartening. One case toward the end of the book involves a missing dog and little girl and reads like it was “ripped from the headlines.” I enjoyed it very much.