Our friend Tony works for Springfield Police Department and is a K-9 Officer. He just started working with a new dog 6 months ago after Perry, his previous partner of many years retired. Creck is a beautiful black German Shepherd. He is 4 years old an was born in Czechoslovakia.
While this was our first K9 Competition, I'm sure it will not be our last. It was a great eye opener. These dogs are incredible!! We enjoyed watching the Area Search, where they put a bad guy in a container, and then the dogs have four to choose from. The dog sniffs them out, and the officer has to tap the box, to acknowledge that his dog has found the bad guy. The dog & officer team who gets the bad guy in the shortest amount of time, wins that portion of the competition.
The next part was my favorite....the agility course. There were a series of gates, ramps, windows a culvert tube, and box that both officer & dog had to go through. The box that both had to go through, was almost playtime for the dogs..they thought that was great!!
There was also fastest dog competition and handler protection, where the dog was in the car, and the officer would approach a suspect, and if the suspect tried to hurt the officer, the officer could "pop" the door, and the dog would come to his rescue.
It was an incredible afternoon, and we enjoyed it tremendously. We also enjoyed getting to officially meet Creck. We were sad that we never got to see Perry compete...as he retired this past January. I will say this...these dogs don't get the credit they deserve. There is no way a person can outrun a dog. They are loyal, fearless, and love what they do.
I put photos of all 11 dogs in the competition. I tried to get the names straight, but I was confused on two of the four Springfield dogs....maybe someone can help me out??!! I will correct them when I can chat with Tony or another officer that might be able to help me out!
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