CLARKSVILLE, Ark. — The Clarksville Police Department (CPD) and military personnel are holding a special four-day K-9 training this week, with teams from across Arkansas and neighboring states joining in.
Throughout Clarksville there are multiple training events taking place at different locations… all in different disciplines.
This is the only K-9 workshop in Arkansas that offers training to military, law enforcement, civilians, and search and rescue service members. Dogs and trainers from around 35 different K-9 units across the country have gathered in Clarksville to brush up their detection skills for their yearly certification test.
Senior Master Trainer Bill Faus with the North American Police Work Dog Association (NAPWA) says "What we do is we work through these tests to make sure that they are adequate, and that they do exactly what they're required to do. most departments demand that if we fail the testers in a certain exercise, they are not allowed to work the street until they get recertified,"
Lucky is a three-year-old military patrol drug-detection dog. He does all types of patrol work such as obedience, scouting, and searching buildings. Instead of a food treat—a toy is his reward after finding drugs.
“That's his drive to want to work ... If they end up being really successful in that game, they get to play even more,” said Cody Grosinsky, team leader at Fort Sill in Oklahoma. Grosinsky is a military working dog handler and just started working with Lucky three months ago.
“We're gonna start him on tracking and trailing, seeing how he does on it. He's never been in that type of situation before, so it should be interesting," explained Grosinsky.
Faus says Tuesday's training will consist of practicing searching lockers and rooms "and you have people that are searching buildings, you have people that are running tracks, you have people that are searching for cadavers. So you have all these different dogs working all these different venues at the same time,"
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