Editor's note: The International Association of Canine Pest Inspectors (IAOCPI) held its second annual seminar and re-certification program, Feb. 17-20, in Manistee, Mich. IAOCPI’s Michael Goldman filed the following report.

IAOCPI is pleased to announce its 2nd annual seminar and re-certification was a huge success. With 25 handlers and 38 K-9's attending there was always something going on. The training seminar was sponsored once again by Action Canine Institute, Manistee, Mich.

We had the entire Days Inn hotel at our disposal for training as well as the certification testing. The training and evaluating throughout the three-day seminar was performed by Eldon Presnell and Rick Ball from Green Collar Canine Development, N.C.; Pando Stepanos from Olympus K-9, Orangeville, Ontario, Canada; and John Mendham and John Skalski out of Michigan.

IAOCPI President Darren Bowman said, “In the end it didn't matter who trained the teams or what reward was given, it was all about whether the team could certify. The re-certification component yielded an 80% pass rate which speaks to the high standards that our certification process mandates. ”

The handlers had to search multiple rooms with unknown hides and properly identify where bedbugs were placed.

The handlers also had to search multiple items of luggage to identify bags that contained as few as three live bed bugs.

The handlers also were exposed to an in depth course on canine psychology to improve communications and behavior analysis with their dog(s).

The interaction between handlers from Canada and the U.S. gave us all better insights as to how better serve our customers.

This year a great deal of detection theory was offered and all the delegates were hungry for the knowledge offered.