9th annual K9 seminar held in Perry

Police dogs and their handlers from all over the United States came to Perry this week for the ninth annual South Georgia K9 Training and Certification Workshop at the Georgia National Fairgrounds and Agricenter.

The workshop is hosted annually by the Dooly County and Houston County Sheriff’s Offices to offer K9 teams training and certification with officials from the National Narcotic Detector Dog Association (NNDDA).

Training began Monday and ended Thursday with an evening banquet where awards were given out in different areas of training. Lt. Marsha Peavy with the Dooly County Sheriff’s Office said this year’s workshop has been a great success.

“Each year it continues to grow,” Peavy said. “We had over 90 teams that came from all over. We also have instructors who come from Alaska, Wyoming, the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, and Customs and Border Protection. Some of the training the handlers and dogs go through is criminal apprehension, tracking, detection for narcotics and explosives, and much more.”

Houston County Sheriffs Office, Lt. Clay Chambers, helps coordinate the annual workshop. Chambers has been with the Houston County Sheriff’s Office for 19 years and has been a part of the K9 unit since 2006. His dog is named “Dany.” Chambers said both the Dooly County and Houston County Sheriff’s Offices look forward to the workshop every year.

“We love being able to give back and help the K9 community and being able to make a better team and better dogs so we have better results within the communities,” Chambers said. “The K9 unit is an extremely valuable tool in law enforcement.”

Awards were given to the top three teams in each area of training as well as the top three teams overall, Thursday evening. Also during the awards banquet Thursday, the Houston County Sheriff’s Office and Dooly County Sheriff’s Office recognized Fred “Doc” Henzler for his support and service as a chaplain to Houston County law enforcement agencies and to the K9 seminar. Henzler was given a plaque and expressed his gratitude for the recognition.