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A Seminole County police dog named Amber was honored at this years Missing Children’s Ceremony for locating and saving a special needs child when no one else could find the child, and as Mike Vasilinda tells us, the number of tracking dogs in use is exploding because of some families loss.

Diena Thompson’s was the feature speaker for two dozen police officers spending the week trying to improve their tracking dogs abilities. The Jacksonville mom lost her 7 years old daughter Somer to a rapist in 2009. Now she thrives on making the world safer for other children.

“I just come every year delivering my message that what they are doing is important and that I want them to keep up the good work and help me protect the children in Florida” says Thompson.

Each year, the Florida Public Safety Institute hosts a week long trailing exercise for police dogs. Pasco County deputy Chris Miller hopes his to improve his young dogs endurance.

“He’s up to about six hours. Really really solid following a trail. We hope to get him up  to 24, 36” Miller told us.

Many of the dogs come from one place:

“These dogs were donated by the Jimmy Ryce Foundation” Broward County Sheriff’s Deputy Kelli Covet told us.

11 Yr old Jimmy was killed less than two miles from his home, and his parents always thought he would could have been rescued if a tracking dog had been available. They set out to make that happen.

The Jimmy Ryce Foundation has given hundreds of dogs to law enforcement agencies across the country, but there are still thousands without.

Each year, more and more dogs are succeeding says Deputy Debbie Wallace of the Broward County Sheriff’s Office.

“it was a natural abduction, so it was a good ending. So they found the child alive.”

And while Diena can’t bring her Somer back, just as Don Ryce can’ bring Jimmy back, both are working to make the world safer for other children through the noses of these bloodhounds.

The competition brought a dog from as far away as Michigan, and it too was from the Jimmy Ryce Foundation, brought to the Cass County Sheriff’s office by a deputy who used to work in Manatee County. Competitors from California were forced to stay home after complications shipping their animals.