They’re the ones called in when someone goes missing — in an accident, a natural disaster, at a crime scene. This weekend canines and their handlers will descend upon Washington to train to do exactly that: find people.

The seventh annual N.C. CERT (Canine Emergency Response Team) human remains detection seminar and training will take place this weekend in the City of Washington and greater Beaufort County. The locations where the training will take place are varied: Coastal Carolina Railroad box cars on the tracks at Havens Gardens, the waterways near Camp Bonner, confined spaces in the Impressions building, an old stockyard at Old Ford, Warren Field airport and the open and cluttered spaces of EJE Recyling.

They’re varied for a reason—to give the dogs and their handlers as much hands-on experience with as many simulated real-life scenarios as possible, according to John Pack, Beaufort County’s Emergency Management coordinator.

“There are four teams of the 28 that will be evaluated against the national certification for cadaver dog teams,” Pack said. “It will allow them to be called by FEMA for any catastrophe. … They can be deployed anywhere the dog and handler want to go.”

Case in point is the recent mudslide in Oso, Wash., in which 41 people were killed: cadaver dog teams from the East Coast were called out to the West Coast to help in the search for the missing, Pack said.

The 28 teams participating in this weekend’s event are from 11 states — as far as Chicago, Ill., Tampa, Fla., and New Jersey — with instructors coming from Florida and Colorado. Led by N.C. CERT Chief Mac Morgan, the annual Washington event is instrumental in training canines and their volunteer handlers to participate in searches, as well as assist at the scene of a crime, according to Pack.

“It’s amazing how cadaver dogs can reinforce a crime scene,” Pack said. “It all goes into the law enforcement side: finding out where (a crime) occurred and how it occurred.”

Pack said the N.C. CERT training in Washington has become a preferred event among dog handlers.

“This will be the most teams we’ve ever had here, so we’re getting a following, because there are other trainings along the East Coast but these people have chosen to come to Little Washington,” Pack explained. “We’re always changing the course on them and they like that.”

Pack also wanted to remind locals who happen to see or drive by canines and their handlers during training to be respectful.

“They’re coming here, they’re spending money here and they’re making a super big effort to be here,” Pack explained. “These could very well be the same people who one day come in and search for our loved ones.”