Friday March 29th, 2024 11:55AM
11:53AM ( 2 minutes ago ) News Alert

Oakwood PD welcomes 2nd K9

Oakwood Police's second K9 graduated from training Friday.

Ikon went through a rigorous six week training course at Custom Canines Unlimited. Trainer Buck Allen said the course includes obedience, articles, tracking detection (narcotics and explosives), and control function (bite) and the dogs and handlers are on call 24/7, like they would be on the job.

"We train off-site, we train obstacles, water work, canine pick ups, and on top of all that they (the handler) have to maintain records. Everything they do here has to be documented," Allen said. He said the dogs are also tested weekly, and must score a 75 average in "book work" and "field work" combined.

Police Chief Tim Hatch said Ikon will be an important asset to their crew.

"We'll be in a position now for the first time to have a K9 on duty pretty much every day of the week," said Hatch. 

Both Ikon and Rico are full service, patrol K9s, Hatch said. Aside from making sure officers find everything in a narcotics tracking or similar case, Hatch said the dogs can be helpful in other ways.

"People are more likely to resist the police than they have been, and a lot of those people are more likely than ever before to use force," Hatch said. "A dog is just a natural calming to some of those kinds of calls, those kind of cases. The dog can, just by being present can cause people to calm down and not be quite so resistant. And, obviously, if they do tend to be over the top, the dog helps us with the situation pretty quickly."

Ikon and his handler, Cpl. Norman, will report for their first day on the job Monday. They'll work alongside Rico before splitting into two alternating K9 teams.

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