By CCSO Sgt. Darin Riggin
The areas second regional K9 event was held this last Saturday at Fuji Park in Carson City and brought in 37 law enforcement K9 teams from 12 different agencies throughout Northern Nevada and California.
Those dog teams competed in four events, including drug detection, explosive detection, agility, and suspect apprehension; all primary specialties of our four-legged partners.
To further in the spirit of regional training, networking, and the sharing of ideas, several agencies took lead in orchestrating the specific competition events.
The Washoe County Sheriff’s Office designed the Patrol Event scenario, Pyramid Lake Tribal hosted the Narcotics Detection scenario, Nevada State Police hosted the Explosives Detection Scenario, and the Lyon County Sheriff’s Office designed the Agility Course event.
The Carson City Sheriff’s Office K9 unit competed in three of the four events and is proud to claim the title of Top Performing Agency overall with a total of four podium finishes and six total rankings in the top five for those events. Most notably for the Narcotics Detection event, Deputy Tripp with K9 Cash finished in 1st place, and Deputy Kepler with K9 Camper finished in 2nd place. For the Agility event, Deputy Pullen with K9 Blue finished 2nd, and Deputy Simpson with K9 Ben finished 3rd. Deputy Kepler with K9 Camper also placed 4th in Agility, and Deputy Etchegaray with K9 Braum placed 5th in Patrol.
K9 teams from Lyon, Douglas, and Washoe Counties, as well as Capitol Police and Reno PD, all performed strongly as well. Lyon County teams combined for three podium finishes, and Sergeant Galvin with K9 Blady won the honor of Top Dog for individual performance, placing 1st in Agility and 4th in Narcotics. While 1st through 3rd rankings are listed below, honorable placing mentions include: Officer Jones with K9 Drax (4th place Patrol) and Deputy Johnson with K9 Blaze (5th place Narcotics).
We hope you all enjoyed the show, and we appreciate the immense support the Carson City community, along with our neighboring agencies, continues to give to these incredible K9 partners. Winners in each event are listed below, along with a handful of snapshots from the event and CCSO’s winners.
Detection – Narcotics:
1st – K9 Cash & Deputy Jon Tripp (CCSO)
2nd – K9 Camper & Deputy Derrick Kepler (CCSO)
3rd – K9 Brutus & Deputy Beau Tittensor (WCSO)
Detection – Explosives:
1st – K9 Honey & Officer Kirk Stewart (Capitol Police)
2nd – K9 Dingo & Officer Matt Lietz (RTA)
3rd – K9 Bernie & Dan Austin (Lockhead)
Agility:
1st – K9 Blady & Sergeant Matt Galvin (LCSO)
2nd – K9 Pullen & Deputy Jeff Pullen (CCSO)
3rd – K9 Ben & Deputy Nick Simpson (CCSO)
Apprehension:
1st – K9 Boris & Sergeant Wayne Hawley (LCSO)
2nd – K9 Blaze & Jeff Johnson (DCSO)
3rd – K9 Kai & Deputy Ramiro Soukup (LCSO)
Top Dog: Sergeant Matt Galvin with K9 Blady – Lyon County Sheriff’s Office
Top Agency: Carson City Sheriff’s Office K9 Unit
