To whom it may concern,
Before printing an article to degrade the Crescent City Police Department K9 units, it would only be fair to actually get the facts from the K9 handlers and the K9 Supervisor first. This article is absolutely false and untrue. I don’t know who Nicola Grobe is but maybe it would be wise of this person to actually do some investigation and schedule some ride alongs with the K9 Handlers that live with the K9’s 24 hours a day 7 days a week. The Crescent City Police Department K9’s are amazingly talented animals. They are highly trained, very well socialized and they work and live with highly trained handlers.
I noticed the first line of the article stated, “My husband and I have observed how a German Shepherd puppy was “trained” for the canine unit in Crescent City.” First of all that is completely false! I would like to know how this person was able to observe any K9 dog that the Crescent City Police Department has ever had as puppies. The Crescent City Police Department does not operate a German Shepherd breeding program for the K9 units. All of the K9’s come to the department as fully trained adult dogs. Most often the K9’s come from Germany where they have been doing competition in the Schutzhund class arenas for the first couple years of their lives. Schutzhund trained dogs have to meet very strict guidelines to be classified. They have to be well socialized, have a good temperament and obedient. Dogs would not be able to meet these standards to be Schutzhund qualified if they were abused as puppies.
The handlers go through an interview process to be chosen as a new handler. Once a handler is chosen then they are sent to a six week K9 academy where they meet the K9 for the first time. The handler does not get to pick or choose what dog he or she will get. The handler learns how to work side by side with the already trained K9 and they are required to pass various tests to become a certified K9 team. The K9 team becomes certified in patrol tactics and narcotic detection or explosives detection. Once the K9 team graduates the K9 academy, they are sent home and the work in the field begins. That is when the true test of a K9 team is forged.
Both K9 teams of the Crescent City Police Department work extremely hard every shift to keep the city as crime free as possible. They work very hard to take the drugs off the streets and out of reach of the children of the community. The Crescent City Police Department K9’s are treated like kings and they are very well cared for and NEVER abused! I urge Nicola Grobe to reconsider the article that was written and retract it until the true facts are obtained.
At the top of your website it says, “Reporting the News as Fairly, Accurately and Honestly as Possible”. I can assure you that this article degrading the Crescent City Police Department K9 program did not meet any of that! The article definitely was not Fair, Accurate or Honest!
Thank you,
Officer Votruba
Dear Officer Votruba,
I appreciate any response, critical or supportive. This blog that I wrote is not posted in Donna’s news paper as an article for the paper, it was instead published only as a letter to the editor. A letter to the editor is a blog that states someone’s opinion rather than a neutral elaboration on a subject.
I apologize for wording myself incorrectly in regards to the Crescent City police department. I was referring to a law enforcement officer who does not work for the Crescent City police department. He was training his own personal German Shepherd puppy and he said to us that he was training the dog for law enforcement work. That is why misunderstood the exact details. I apologize for this misunderstanding. Thank you for pointing this out, I am learning and in the future I will word myself more accurately so there will be no misunderstandings.
I did not write the letter to the editor because I am trying to degrade anybody. I respect law enforcement very highly and the work they do. I wrote this article to bring more awareness to this subject of ethics in dog training because I care very deeply about dogs.
Sincerely, Nicola Grobe