K9 units show off their skills in Idaho Falls
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IDAHO FALLS — Over fifty K9 units from across the state of Idaho competed against each other in skills that they use everyday as apart of their training.
Friday’s competition was for the Idaho Police K9 Conference, where 58 handlers showed off their dog’s ability to detect and apprehend a threat for the community with no fee for admission. This conference is organized every year in different parts of the state, this year organized by law enforcement agencies throughout Eastern Idaho.
“It’s a fun time to be able to go and demonstrate,” said Idaho Falls Police Officer Jose Abreo. “There’s nothing for a handler that’s more important than having somebody love your dog as much as you.”
K9 units are an officer and a dog who go out on patrol to sniff out threats more quickly than a human could. The training for a dog varies, some trained in multiple areas, most often in apprehending suspects and detecting narcotics.
Oftentimes, K9 units are used in traffic stops to smell and detect if there are drugs in the vehicle. Some dogs are trained to detect explosives should the need ever arise.
The way that Officer Francisco Torres explains it, even though K9 Thor, a five-year-old Beligian Malinois, is his partner and best friend, he’s also a tool of the Pocatello Police Department.
“It’s a lot of training into these dogs, to find the odor of narcotics and finding suspects,” Torres said. “It’s tough training.”
The officer and the dog are together every step of the way through the training process. The partners build a bond with each other during this process as they live and work together.
Abreo said that it was intimidating when he met his partner, K9 Ghost, a four-year-old German Shepherd, for the first time.
“What am I doing with this ferocious beast?” Abreo thought. “He looked at me, I looked at him and that’s where the bond started.”
Torres said that him and Thor learned to trust each other throughout training.
“I know that for sure that if something bad happened to me… he would come and look for me and help me out,” Torres said.
In addition to the training done with the department, Abreo and Torres both continue with their dogs on detection and apprehension while at home.
“I want to make sure that Ghost is top notch for what I need him for when I need him,” Abreo said.
“We don’t want a bare minimum dog,” Torres said. “You have to put your time in.”
Just like any human, as the dogs age they’re eventually too old to continue to continue to do the work of a K9. IFPD has two dogs that are close to retirement right now.
Rather then send the dogs away, the officer will take on the responsibility of taking care of them from the city.
In order to do this, the IFPD Fraternal Order of Police sell Challenge Coins for $10, which go directly to the dog’s retirement fund. In addition to this, they also sell stuffed animal replicas of all of the department’s dogs.
“After they’ve given such service to our city, (we make sure) that they can then retire and have some good years in retirement,” Abreo said.