03/05/2026
I am super excited to be hosting Kate Barber (Graham) for a seminar in Burton, OH June 20-21st!!
“The Balanced Detection Team: Putting The Pieces Together for Optimal Performance”
Is your dog lacking independence to range out and search on their own? Does your team have a tendency to blow thresholds, skip corners, zip zag all over a search area, or leave hides behind? Are you interested in learning how to guide and support your dog efficiently throughout a search while still maintaining their autonomy? Even if you aren’t experiencing any significant issues, you will take home a lot from this seminar.
We will be covering various fine tuning on both ends of the leash and how to develop as a strong, methodological, and thorough detection team. For the dog, we will be honing in on independent search drive and patterning. The handler will be learning when and how to insert control and support for their dog, such as by utilizing detailing.
Open to both professional (HR, explosives, narcotics, conservation, bed bugs, etc.) and sport detection teams. Dogs must be started on odor.
$300 for working spots
$150 for audit spots (or $75/day)
Meet the Instructor:
Kate Barber, Owner of Katalyst Kennels in Litchfield, CT
Kate grew up in the competition dog world, training and trialing her dogs starting at age 10. Growing up with accomplished mentors who encouraged an early affinity for building dogs up to their potential allowed Kate to compete in agility, tracking, rally, obedience, conformation, and hunt tests all throughout her teenage years and beyond. She graduated summa cm laude from the State University of New York at Cobleskill with a bachelor's degree in canine sciences and went on to work with the breeding program at Guiding Eyes for the Blind. Kate then went on to be Director of Canine Wellness at another large service dog school, working to add predictive genetic practices and science-based puppy rearing protocols to that organization.
Kate had established her own small breeding program of working labradors in 2014, raising and training puppies from those litters to go to law enforcement & SAR careers. The inspiration for breeding solid working labradors came out of Kate’s own need for her next Human Remains Detection dog, and realizing how hard it could be to find a puppy that checked all the boxes in terms of phenotypic and genotypic quality. Katalyst turned into a full time operation in 2022, and Kate and her staff raise and develop young detection dog prospects for federal, state, and private agencies. Katalyst Kennels is also a member of the Domestic Breeding Consortium, a federally sponsored project focused on understanding best breeding and raising practices to produce detection K9s. Kate continues to be an active SAR handler, and currently has a 5 year old human remains K9 that is regularly utilized for federal and local cases. In her free time, Kate competes with her other dogs in AKC tracking and scentwork, hunt tests, and American Schutzhund, and regularly upland hunts during the season.
