K-9 Dogs Demonstrate Their Skills

CHATTANOOGA, TN. (WDEF-TV) – The Chattanooga police department has eight dogs in its K-9 unit and they have a regular training schedule .
They were at the Moccasin Bend police range Wednesday, but there was another reason for this training session.
Law enforcement agencies have been using trained dogs for 150 years—with varied results.
Those days are gone now. The dogs in use these days, usually German Shepards, are finely tuned machines.
The 8 K-9’s at the Chattanooga police deparment are used to search for drugs and explosives, search for lost people, and to look for crime scene evidence

MASTER PATROLMAN BARRY VRADENBURGH, CPD DOG TRAINER "We pay 7 or 8 thousand dollars for an untrained dog….and then we put 12 to 15 weeks of training into the dogs."

Using hand and verbal commands the handlers put the animals through a series of trials. Some were physical, like climbing over or jumping through obstacles. Then, they demonstrated a search for evidence.

SGT. TOMMY MEEKS, K-9 SUPERVISOR UNIT "He’ll call him out, reward him and send him back in for another search …and find the other evidence we want him to recover."

Yes, these dogs will chase you and bring you down if you are a fleeing suspect. It’s called Criminal Apprehension.

SGT. TOMMY MEEKS "If it happens to be the wrong suspect, the wrong person that dog’s going after, that dog has to listen to us..down..and come back to us so we can redirect."

The purpose of this demonstration is to remind the community about a fund-raiser on behalf of the K-9 units.

VICTORIA KIRSTEIN, CHIC-FIL- A, MARKETING DIRECTOR "Well,I am an animal lover at heart,and then I decided it would be really neat to give back to the community of Chattanooga, and so we though we would work with the Chattanooga Police department and help raise money for the K-9’s."

The fund-raiser is a 5-K, and a one mile fun run to be held on August 8th.
Its sponsored by Chic-Fil-A, and it gets underway at 8 am at Finley stadium.