Madison County Sheriff Ben Stewart reports that during the week of February 13th through February 16th, 2012 All handlers of the Madison County Sheriff’s Office K-9 Unit Obtained National certification in narcotics detection.
The K-9 teams attended the 2012 training and problem solving workshop hosted by American Aluminum in Taylor County Florida.
American Aluminum manufactures the vehicle K-9 containment systems used by the Madison County Sheriff’s Office. Every year they host a workshop for K-9 handlers nationwide to train, problem solve, and certify. Master Trainers from the North American Police Work dog Association (N.A.P.W.D.A.) were on hand to work with handlers on issues with there K-9 partners. The Master Trainers also administered the required tests to obtain national certification for teams wanting to certify.
There were over 120 K-9 teams from many states present. There were also K-9 Instructors and Master Trainers from as far away as Wisconsin. They were all very helpful to the K-9 teams.
All Madison County Sheriff’s Office handlers along with there K-9 partners took the required test for certification which took three days. All teams passed and obtained a national certificate in detecting four different illegal narcotic odors located in vehicles, buildings, and open areas. The tests consisted of multiple hides of the different narcotics along with untainted vehicles, buildings, and open areas known as “blanks”. The teams were required to find all the hides and identify the “blanks” without the assistance of the trainers.
The Madison County Sheriff’s Office teams certified using different alert methods. With the teams certifying in different alert methods the K-9 Unit can be utilized in almost any situation.
Along with the national certificate the teams also received a certificate and 40 hours credit for the training and problem solving work they completed during the week.
All Madison County Sheriff’s Office teams scored 100% with no missed hides and no false alerts.
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