Use this search box to find articles that have run in our newspapers over the last several years.
Date: 11/19/2015
WILBRAHAM – Police Officer Joseph Brewer is now certified to teach K9 units and their officer handlers after undergoing at least 2,000 hours of training as well as completing written and oral board exams.
Brewer told Reminder Publications his certification by the North American Police Work Dog Association to train K9 units and officers in the region is beneficial for the department.
“It shows that the department supports our own K9 unit, but also the K9 units in the area,” he noted. “It really does bring some recognition back to the department. Although I’m training through a training association, I’m still a member of the police department here.
He added that his master trainer sponsor was Police Capt. Dwane Foisy of the Berkshire County Sheriff’s Department, but he also completed training with other master K9 trainers from across the country.
“For them to pass on their knowledge is huge,” he added. “It help me become a trainer and I think it’s helped me as a handler.”
Brewer said 10 police dog handlers went through the certification process, seven of which made trainer or master trainer.
He noted that he’s been a dog handler for 14 years and has served as a police officer for almost 18 years.
The association recently finished training police handlers and K9 units from the Ware and Longmeadow police departments, of which he was a part of, Brewer said.
“For the last several years, I’ve been working with the classes that have been coming up through the organization,” he added. “With this last class of Ware and Longmeadow I took a bigger role in some of the training there. Having handled for so long its nice to see new teams come in and watch the handler and the dog grow together. When they come in the first day either the dog and the handler know each other – their respect level for each other isn’t quite there – and as eight weeks has gone on you seem them get better as a team.”
Longmeadow Police Officer and K9 handler Amanda VanBuskirk, who was trained by Brewer alongside her 21-month-old Belgian shepherd K9 Kai, said subject areas included obedience, area search, tracking, an ability to find articles or objects belonging to suspects, aggression control, and building searches.
“[Brewer] is one of the most intelligent people I’ve ever met about dogs,” she added. “He was able to point out things in my dog that I wasn’t able to see that because he’s been doing it for so long and he’s so good it helped me to read my dog better and ultimately make me a better handler.”
The Wilbraham Police Department’s K9 unit was started in 2007 by a donation from the Wilbraham Mason Lodge, according to the department’s website. The department’s first K-9 unit was a yellow Labrador retriever named Ben and Brewer served as his handler. Ben was a training dog used for missing and wanted persons searches and retired in late 2008 due to a medical condition.
The department’s second K9, Charon, is a German shepherd imported from the Czech Republic. Charon serves as a patrol and narcotic K9. Patrol aspects include tracking, areas searches, article recovery, and criminal apprehension. Charon is trained to detect marijuana, cocaine, heroin, methamphetamine, and ecstasy.
Brewer said he plans to pursue additional certification to become a master trainer in the future.
“In December I’ll be traveling to another seminar and I’ll be working as a trainer in Florida – working towards more hours towards my master trainer,” he noted. “You can’t test for it until a minimum of three years has gone bye. There’s a whole host of requirements – more hours, you have to train a certain number of dogs in the disciplines that you’re a trainer in.”
He added that he would be happy to see the Wilbraham Police Department gain a second K9 unit someday if funding becomes available.