by Alissa Cannon, the Amite Tangi Digest

Tangipahoa Parish Sheriff's Office K9s and their handlers held an aquatic apprehension training at the Tangipahoa River in Independence on Tuesday, June 15.

Sergeant Steven Redmond and Deputy Mike Dean, Jr. rounded up the K9 Division to practice, for the first time, an aquatic suspect apprehension. Dean said that the training for K9s do not typically involve anything with water, but, since Tangipahoa consists of many waterways, he felt that the division should be practicing aquatic apprehensions. "You never know when you'll need to send dogs in," Dean said, "I'd rather find out how a dog is going to react before that situation happens." Sergeant Redmond agreed and said, "We want to expose the dog and the handler to different environments and scenarios that could occur in the performance of our duties."

Four of the five TPSO K9 handlers were in attendance, including Sergeant Redmond with K9 Bart, Deputy Dean with K9 Emir, Deputy Albert Sharp with K9 Titan, and Sergeant Tommy Ferrand with K9 Diego. Unable to attend the training was Deputy Henry Neihaus with K9 Trigger. The handlers were also joined by Ponchatoula Police Officer Steven Dailey with K9 Indo. During the exercise, Redmond, Dean, and Sharp took turns being a "suspect" who was to be apprehended in the water. Each handler then yelled commands as they would in a real-life situation and sent their dogs in after each suspect. "All of the dogs responded differently," Redmond explained, "but were still effective in apprehending the suspects."

Dean then took a stance on a bank to the opposite side of a small pool of water and held the bite sleeve. Each handler was to send their dog after Dean to find out if they went around the water or through it, and to see how far they would track Dean when he ran back through the river. "This is more of a realistic training than just jumping hurdles," Dean said. Officer Steven Dailey agreed and explained that, "these dogs won't know what to do until you put them in the situation."

Dailey and Dean both enthusiastically answered the questions of an inquisitive boy who happened to visit the river after the training. They proudly answered questions about their K9 companions and Dailey even explained the different breeds of dogs to the boy as football player positions.

Redmond feels the training was a success and hopes to continue the real-life training. "We try to push ourselves, both handlers and dogs, to know what our limits are," he concluded. Since the inception of the K9 Division of the Sheriff's Office in 2004, the K9s and handlers have gone through very rigorous and extensive training to offer safety and protection to the citizens of Tangipahoa Parish and surrounding areas.