Police And Working K-9 Foundation

Programs: The police and working k-9 foundation cover your k-9 program has provided essential safety equipment and training for law enforcement k-9 teams in northern california since 2009 and we are now providing assistance in southern california, starting with law enforcement k9 teams in los angeles and ventura counties. We are proud that our cover your k-9 bullet-proof vests are made in california and we have distributed hundreds of the custom level iiia bulletproof vests to protect law enforcement k-9s in cities and counties in northern california since we started our program. This past year we were able to provide protective ballistic vests to k9s at alameda county sheriffs office, bart pd, the california highway patrol, concord pd, contra costa county sheriffs office, fremont pd, hillsborough pd, merced county sheriffs office, monterey county sheriffs office, pleasant hill pd, sacramento pd, sacramento county sheriffs office, san francisco pd, san jose pd, san mateo pd, san mateo county sheriffs office, santa clara county sheriffs office, union city pd, ventura pd and many others. In the coming year we hope to branch out to other areas of california to assist the k9 teams there with protecting their hardworking k9 teams. In august of 2016 we were overjoyed to hear the news that the training from our cover your k-9 emergency medicine course and the special supplies from our custom k9 trauma kit helped to save the life of us forest service k-9 ice. K9 ice was attacked by a suspect and received a serious wound to his neck that nicked his carotid artery. His handler was able to pack the wound with the provided combat gauze and other pressure bandage materials to staunch the blood flow while he and two other officers carried k9 ice out of the northern california forest. They met a chp helicopter that flew them to vca hospital in redding, where the veterinary specialists there were able to perform a successful surgery. We hear that k9 ice is now happy to back at work protecting our communities and forests. K9 ice won the american hero dog awards law enforcement k-9 of the year award. Over the course of the year in 2016, we offered three types of training courses to help teach officers to help their k9 partners in an emergency. Our cover your k9 emergency medicine course (which has received national attention) was attended by 160 law enforcement k9 handlers from around california in april and october and they all received the custom cover your k9 trauma kit valued at $300. In march we debuted the tactical canine casualty care course in southern california with a class at the rose bowl hosted by pasadena pd and one at a cal trans facility hosted by the california highway patrol. Over 50 officers from la county sheriff, the los angeles police dept, pasadena pd, the california highway patrol and other regional agencies were able attend and receive valuable scenario-based training by the veterinary tactical group on handling life threatening emergencies with their canine out in the field. We provided each of the officers with a custom portable k9 ifak kit that can be worn on their uniform. An advanced urban search and rescue field medicine course was coordinated by fema task force 4 veterinarian erin troy for the fema task force 3, 4 and 9 k9 handlers. Dr. Troy was joined by cal oes le k9 coordinator dr. Ben ho and dr. Megan davis of sage centers to provide a day long course in handling k9 emergencies in the disaster zones around the us and the world where these teams respond. The 40 handlers all received a usar k9 ifak at the completion of the 8 hour training. All of these programs and trauma kits were provided to the officers and agencies at no charge. Since starting our k9 emergency medical training in 2011, over 1100 law enforcement k9 handlers from local, state and federal agencies have attended the life-saving training & trauma kits. As much as we do, there are always waiting lists for each of our courses so we hope to do even more! Each year more k-9s die nationally from heat exhaustion than any other single cause. There have significant advances in the technology for heat alarm systems and we have been on the forefront of introducing these systems. Our cool your k9 patrol car heat alarm program was the first in this state to introduce ace k-9 watchdog system with a cell phone app to help keep our loyal k-9s safe while they are on the job. This allows real time communication on the temperature in the vehicle from the two heat sensors in the car, the status of the engine and the air conditioning system to an app on the officers cell phone. In the past, only very basic information was available to a remote pager which often lost a signal when too far away. We are hoping to make sure that as many of our california k9 teams as possible have the proper protection for their k9 vehicles. This year we provided heat alarm systems for the alameda county sheriffs office k-9 unit, the oakland pd, the san francisco pd, sacramento police dept, sacramento co sheriffs office, san leandro pd and the san mateo county sheriffs office. When police dogs retire they go to live with their handler and become part of the family. The responsibility for their ongoing care and any medical emergencies falls to the handler. We believe that these k9s who have served and protected us so bravely deserve much better in their golden years. To help them we have a special retired k-9 emergency care fund to assist with up to $1000 toward emergency care. This year retired k9 tlaloc (oakland pd), k9 diesel (merced pd) and k9 marco (san jose pd) received help at their time of need with funds from our retired k-9 emergency care fund. We have learned that many of the elderly police dogs have developed spinal problems due to the demands placed on their bodies from many years of service. We have a new program to provide these retired k9 heroes with specialized low profile mobility harnesses to assist them with maintaining their daily activities and quality of life,with the help of the commander at travis air force base in fairfield, ca, we established the defenders military working dog fund to allow their unit to host specialized k9 training as well as a k9 trial on base to bring together military working dog handlers with police and sheriffs k9 handlers from around california. This fund also provides additional training opportunities for the travis mwd teams to travel to specialized training that is held off base. The travis teams provide security on the base, deploy overseas on missions and provide mwd screening for explosives during visits to the state by federal dignitaries and foreign heads of state. The mission of this fund is to enhance their training, readiness and opportunities to work and collaborate with regional law enforcement to help keep our communities secure. Pet food express has been our primary partner in our communities in raising funds during the annual cover your k-9 fundraiser that is held at all of their stores every july. In 2016 they expanded with the opening of several more stores in southern california and the fundraiser has expanded along with them. Over 100 k-9 teams come out each year at the pet food express locations to educate the public on the important work that k9 teams do for our communities. With the pet food express donation of pet wash proceeds and donations by their customers in all 60 stores, we raised over $160,000 during the cover your k9 weekend in 2016. This enabled us to provide our program services to northern california k9 teams and in 2016 we were able to launch several new programs in southern california for the first time. This partnership between pet food express, a private company and our non-profit is an excellent example of the great accomplishments that can happen in our communities with creativity and collaboration. We hope that it inspires other companies to reach out and partner with non-profit organizations in their communities. We are exploring additional ways to reach out and help more k9 teams in the california communities that we have not been able to serve yet. We are all volunteers and would like to do this without adding the burden of costly fundraising expenses. So 2017 will be a year for exploring ways to help more california k9 teams in a cost effective way.