K-9s compete to be ‘Overall Top Dog’
Emergency unit K-9s, along with their handlers, are competing Friday to be top dog at the Can-Am Police-Fire Games.
The Narcotics Dogs event, the only one with nonhuman competitors, relies on the bond between officers and their canines. The event is not open to spectators.
The dogs will be put through a variety of obstacles and situations to test their abilities. They will compete in a vehicle search, both exterior and interior; a luggage search; and an open area search.
The teams will be judged on the mastery of their trades — the dogs’ efficacy in sniffing out narcotics hidden from view, and their officers’ ability to read them in the given situation.
The dogs are tested on their ability to sniff out the basic narcotic odors, those being cocaine, heroin, marijuana, and methamphetamines.
The Narcotics Dogs event “is designed to determine the proficiency and reliability of dogs in the detection of narcotics,” according to the Can-Am Games’ website.
The North American Police Work Dog Association, which certifies all K-9 units through a rigorous 400 hours of training before they hit the streets, requires that all dogs are at least 91.66% effective in their search.
“Overall Top Dog” will be awarded to the team with the highest total of points combined from two of the Narcotics Dogs events.
Officer Matthew Rowan, of Ridley Township, Delaware County, will be competing in the Narcotics Dogs event for the first time this summer along with his dog, Hannes. Rowan has only attended the games once before, in York County in 2014, where he participated mostly in water-based events.
Though this will be his first time competing with Hannes in the Can-Am Games, the two have had their share of competition elsewhere. They attend yearly local — and occasionally national — competitions to certify their skills and, in Rowan’s own words, to prove that Hannes is still effective on his feet, even at 7 years old.
“He’s my best friend,” Rowan said. “He comes home with me every day. He lives amongst my family.”
He even takes Hannes to visit elementary school classes on a semiregular basis.
“I am very blessed in the way that, with most police dogs, you have to be very on-guard around small children. But not Hannes, he’s my family,” Rowan said.
He said that his bond with his dog is irreplaceable and it’s his favorite aspect of his job — the best thing he has ever gotten to do.
He looks forward to testing their relationship further in the Narcotics Dogs event.
