Posted by
daver in
Safe City,
Services News on
May 30, 2012 |
no responses The cross-town rivalry between Akron University and Kent State University sports teams inspires a lot of cheering, chanting and passionate gestures.
It turns out that same competitive fire has gone to the dogs, and Kent’s K9′s came out on top.
On May 19th, local law enforcement personnel held the 2nd Annual K9 Competition at Lock 3 in Downtown Akron where the officers/handlers had a chance to put their K9 skills to the test for tracking and catching bad guys.
Akron’s 2nd Annual “K-9 Challenge” was sponsored by the Akron Police Department and included 20 teams of dogs and handlers from Summit, Portage, Stark, Tuscarawas and Wayne Counties.
The Olympic-style competitions started at 10 am and continued until about 2 pm.
“The purpose of the K-9 Challenge is to let the public see the benefits of using dogs in specialized law enforcement tasks,” says Sgt. Dale Dorn, the Akron Police Department’s K-9 Commander. “We all train together, and usually, only the Police Olympics have dog team events. Our handlers like the competition, and this is a way for us to have some fun at the same time.”
Dogs were judged on obedience, agility and criminal apprehension – following criteria used in state certification tests. In addition to trophies being awarded in various categories, there will be one “Top Dog” award given to the K-9 team that scores the most points.
Kent Police Chief Lee proudly reports that Kent’s Aiko took first place in the apprehension phase and Kent’s Felo took second place out of 20 teams.
Congratulations to both teams who performed so well in this competition and represented the Kent community with pride.
