Resource
Canines for Care team
The Canines for Care team is led by a multi-disciplinary group of medical professionals, canine detection specialists, Environmental Services, infection prevention and control practitioners and, of course, canines.
Canine detection specialists
Teresa Zurberg
Teresa Zurberg is the co-founder and program technical lead for VCH's Canine Detection Program and a nationally-recognized canine detection specialist. Her work with the canine team has been featured regularly in international media, including in three books and two documentaries, as well as in countless public appearances with her canine partners. As part of her work, she has contributed to several published scientific research papers that highlight the effectiveness of medical biological detection canines. Teresa has worked in the field of canine detection as a validated narcotic, explosives and patrol handler since 2010 and has been responsible for explosives screening at large transportation hubs, such as BC Ferries, at concert and sports venues, such as Rogers Arena for the Vancouver Canucks, as well as screening industrial warehouses for contraband.
Lale Aksu
Lale has loved animals from a young age and has lived with an assortment of them. Since moving from Germany to Canada 16 years ago, she discovered her passion for professional dog training. Owning several dogs of her own, Lale's favourite breeds are Manchester Terriers and Nova Scotia Duck Tolling Retrievers. Her dogs have won awards and championships in various dog sports like agility, rally obedience, scent detection and tracking.
Crystal Van Meer
Crystal Van Meer works as a Training Assistant/ Scent detection specialist for the Canines for Care Scent Detection Program. Up until starting in this position in 2023, she has worked in the film industry as an animal trainer and as a pet dog trainer for 9 years. Crystal loves to pursue ongoing continuing education by attending seminars and webinars and keeping up to date on career-specific literature. She hopes to continue to be able to play a critical role in the growth and expansion of Canines for Care.
Outside of work, Crystal enjoys photography, hiking, and competing in competitive dog sports with her personal dogs.
Lori Little
Canines
K9 Angus
A field-bred English Springer Spaniel born in 2014, Angus comes from a long line of recognized hunting dogs. He is trained to find environmental reservoirs of C. difficile contamination in the hospital environment and is the first-ever canine VCH employee. An ambassador for the program, he has travelled across the country screening hospitals. Angus has been featured internationally in the media, appears in three books and two documentaries and has made countless public appearances with his human partner. Angus has become the furry face of the Canines for Care program.
K9 Micro
Bournepark Bobby (call name Micro), born in 2019, is a purebred Labrador Retriever imported from the Netherlands. He was bred by Bournepark Gundogs, an internationally acclaimed working kennel that specializes in breeding dogs for hunting and detection work. Micro was selected because of his intense hunt drive, desire to please and his eagerness to learn new tasks. Micro is being taught to freeze and stare at the scent stand to indicate the presence of a target odour. He has not previously been trained on any target odours.
K9 Yoki
Yoki came to us from PADS as her career ambitions were more suited for a life of detection work versus being a service dog. Yoki is a black Lab/Golden Retriever mix born in 2019. Her passions include ball chasing and anything that rewards her for food, making her a perfect detection dog.
K9 Traveller
Rockey's Invictus Travelling Girl Gone abroad, call name Traveller, is from the hunting kennel Rockey's Kennels in Utah. Traveller was born in 2019 and is part of our C. diff detection team. When Trav isn't sniffing out super bug bacteria, she is working on her doctorate in archeology and regularly can be found digging four-foot holes in the backyard for her explorations.
K9 Fancy
Rockey's Fancy, call name Fancy is from the well-known Rockey's Kennels in Utah. Fancy was born in 2018 and is part of our C. diff detection team. She is a spirited girl and lives to work or lay on the couch and watch TV. There is no middle ground with this dog, and she puts 110 per cent into everything she does, be it searching or cuddling. Fancy is also the mother of Clan Invicta's first litter of future super sniffers.
K9 Anton
K9 Arti
Medical Microbiology
Dr. Marthe Kenny Charles
Dr. Marthe Charles is the division head of Medical Microbiology and Infection Prevention and Control at VCH. She is a medical microbiologist and an infectious diseases specialist and has a MSc in microbiology and immunology. She has been involved with the Canines for Care team since 2017 and has published on the reproducibility of the training program.
Dr. Elizabeth Bryce
Dr. Elizabeth Bryce is a clinical professor at the University of British Columbia (UBC), has an honorary Doctorate of Science from the University of Regina and is dually qualified in Internal Medicine and Medical Microbiology. Her work at VCH spans more than four decades, during which she has published more than 138 peer reviewed articles and held grants totalling approximately $6 million dollars. Dr. Bryce is the former co-founder of the B.C. Provincial Control Network and a former co-director of the Canadian Nosocomial Infection Control Surveillance Program. She is the co-founder of our canine scent detection team.
Program leadership
Iasmim Pereira
Hassam Saber
Samual Whyte
Samuel has extensive knowledge and experience in Facility Management for both operations and service excellence in Canada and overseas, ranging from Director of Operations and Maintenance – Facilities and, prior to this position, as Director of Quality and Service Excellence – Facilities at Queen’s University; Manager Caretaking Programs – Facilities Management at University of Calgary; Provincial Director – Business Support & Development and prior to this position Special Advisor – Linen & Environmental Services & Executive Associate – Linen Services of Alberta Health Services.
Sam enjoys traveling to seaside communities with his family, playing squash and piano as well as supporting poor communities in West Africa.