Photo By Senior Master Sgt. Cohen Young | A military working dog catches up with a simulated bad guy during the Hardest Hit...... read more read more
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SCHOFIELD BARRACKS, Hawaii - Soldiers, airmen, Marines, and Transportation Security Administration and Hawaii Police Department personnel completed a week long K-9 competition at Schofield Barracks Hawaii, Nov. 19.
The 2010 Hawaiian Islands Working Dog Competition, sponsored by 728th Military Police Battalion and the 13th Military Police Detachment, both based at Schofield Barracks, had more than 40 competitors from all around the nation.
“It’s been pretty good being out here in my first competition,” said Army Sgt. David Hydro, a native of Los Angeles, Calif., and a member of the 500th Military Police Detachment, Fort Leavenworth, Kan.
It has been a good week for all of the contestants because they had a chance to interact with one another and learn a little from one another. In some cases, the competitors had trained together when going through their technical schools.
“I saw a Marine that I worked with in the past and then was able to catch up with a soldier that I went through tech school with,” said Air Force Staff Sgt. Nicholas Paul Vollweiler, a native of McMichaels, Pa., and currently assigned to the 647th Security Forces Squadron, Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam, Hawaii.
The competition also provided a chance for the military and civilian K-9 community to see how each other conducts some of their department specific training.
“The K-9 world is a small community and competitions like this one allow us to come together and exchange training methods as well as compete with one another,” Vollweiler added.
There were many categories the dogs competed in for “top dog” honors, to including obedience drills, bomb detection, narcotics, an obstacle course, the hardest hit competition and several others. During the hardest hit competition, everyone lined up to watch as the dogs tackled a fleeing criminal and held him or her until his handler was on the scene.
For some of the dogs, this was their first competition, but they still did well.
“I think my dog Lacy has done well since this is his first competition and we just picked him up in September,” Vollweiler said. “He’s the youngest dog in the competition.”
The contest has been around for a long time, but stopped back in 2001 due to the demand for Hawaii-based dogs to deploy in support of the war on terrorism. The first year the local competition was back in action was 2009.
Most of the dog handlers have deployed both by themselves and as a dog handler, and saw a big difference in the two deployments.
“Deploying with my dog, it’s just 'Bo' and I and we are assigned to a specific area and we depend on just each other as opposed to being with a squad and just being a team leader,” said Army Sgt. Noah Carpenter, a native of Phoenix, Ariz., and assigned to the 13th MP Detachment, Schofield Barracks, Hawaii.
It doesn't matter what service these dog handlers are from, it's obvious they love their job and wouldn't trade it for anything in the world.
“Working with a dog every day is the best job in the military,” Hydro said. “Most people work behind a desk and I get to play with a dog.”
| Date Taken: | 11.19.2010 |
| Date Posted: | 11.23.2010 20:04 |
| Story ID: | 60769 |
| Location: | SCHOFIELD BARRACKS, HI, US |
| Web Views: | 484 |
| Downloads: | 7 |
This work, Military Dogs Compete in Hawaii, by SMSgt Cohen Young, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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