Area K-9 Units Receive Water Training at Liberty Pool

K-9 units from several area law enforcement agencies went through training Tuesday morning from EliteK9.com at Liberty Pool.

Sgt. Matt Long, Pettis County Sheriff's Deputy and K-9 officer, told KSIS that the joint-agency training session at the pool was a first for this area.

“A lot of us are new dog handlers within the last year or two, and we don't get very many opportunities to train in the water. So we took advantage of it, and Sedalia Parks & Rec helped out tremendously, allowing us to use the pool for today and get some training done,” Sgt. Long said.

The pool was closed to the public during the training session.

Participating in the training on Tuesday were the Pettis County Sheriff's Office, Sedalia Police, Henry County Sheriff's Office, St. Claire County Sheriff's Office, Clinton Police and Whiteman Air Force Base.

This training was special for Sgt. Long.

“Any time we can get training outside the normal day-to-day stuff is great, because, you can't expect your dog to do something in the field that you haven't trained for,” he pointed out.

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Inter-agency cooperation is always there when needed, Long said, adding that when the bomb threat incident occurred at Bothwell Regional Health Center in late July, Pettis County contacted Whiteman Air Force Base for assistance. “They brought four dogs down immediately,” Long recalled. “So yeah, our cooperation with other agencies and vice versa, is outstanding.”

Pettis County has had a K-9 Unit in operation since the spring of 2021. Deputy Moore got K-9 Cav, and then last year, Sgt. Moore got paired up with K-9 Lord.

When asked how the K-9 program was going, Sgt. Long responded “Couldn't ask for anything better.”