Christina Bunn, CNWI

Christina Bunn is the owner and master trainer of Puget Sound Detection Dogs. Christina has been training detection dogs for over 21 years and has owned and operated her own facility for over 15 of those years. Christina has evaluated hundreds of canines for work in detection and has trained over 150 for the detection of controlled substances. At one point, Christina had over 50 dogs working throughout Washington, Oregon, Idaho, and the country of Brazil. Among the dogs that worked in Oregon, 11 of those dogs had been with Oregon State Police.

Christina has been an instructor at the Pacific Northwest Police Detection Dog Association’s conference for the last 10 years. Christina is a volunteer for Snohomish County Volunteer Search and Rescue and has served in many capacities for 21 years. During her time with SCVSAR Christina has handled two canines. K9 Matty was an area search dog and was also crossed trained to locate human remains. K9 Matty’s daughter K9 Springfield was a trailing K9 and was also crossed trained for human remains. Christina and her K9 partners were utilized on hundreds of missions and had multiple successes in live find as well as human remains. She is the trainer for the county’s HRD Team and conducts weekly trainings.

Christina trained “Terra” the Eco Dog that currently works for EcoTech LLC in Portland, Oregon. Terra’s duties include locating buried, leaking, heating oil tanks, and detecting soil contamination, including aviation crash sites. Christina has registered two canines with Pet Partners and HOPE Animal Assisted Crisis Response. During Christina and K9 Springfield’s career together they deployed to the Marysville Pilchuck Highschool murder suicide, the SPU shooting and the HWY 530 Mudslide providing comfort to those involved in these crises.

With over 45 collective years in the working and companion dog realm, Christina has worked with humane societies, boarding kennels, and veterinarian hospitals. She is a Canine Good Citizen/STAR Puppy/AKC Tricks Evaluator, Certified Nosework Instructor and Trial Judge. She teaches 13 sport detection classes a week for all levels from intro to Elite.

Having the great honor of judging at the first National NACSW trial in 2013, Christina is known for saying, “Don’t’ ask your dog to lower herself to your level, you , as a handler, must rise up to your dog’s level. You must become a student of your dog.”

Christina competes at the Utility level in Competitive Obedience with her Dutch Shepherd, “Dori”. Christina and “Dori” also compete in Tracking, Agility, Lure Coursing, FAST, and Dock Diving. They have multiple competitive titles under their belt. They have explored Herding and IPO. Christina is married, the mother of 5 adult children, 2 stepsons, and 11 grandchildren to boot.