New York state’s fifth annual Canine Week is being held at the state’s Preparedness Training Center in Oriskany, in Oneida County. Fifty-seven explosive detection teams across the state are participating. 

“When an opportunity comes along to become a K-9 handler, you always think, well, I love dogs so maybe it would be right for me. So it turns out, there’s a lot to it, a lot more than you would originally think,” said Jordan Dodge, a K-9 Handler with the Utica Police Department.

Doge had his canine, Brophy, for the past five years. He is used for detecting explosives and assisting with patrol apprehension. He says these trainings are beneficial. 

“So, the hope is to always bring something new back. There’s so much experience here. There’s people with 20-plus years on the job. There’s people with 20-plus years as just handlers alone. Just to pick their brains and be able to bring something back to a real world, that I do every day, said Dodge. 

The K-9s and their handlers are doing different exercises throughout the week to better detect explosives. 

“This is our cityscape facility. This is our crown jewel at the property here at the state Preparedness Training Center. It’s 45,000 of square feet of indoor training space. That’s very important in upstate New York with our weather. It’s designed to have everything that a city would have,” said Meghan Dudley, the intelligence analyst for the state’s Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Services. She says that mimicking a real-life city, it makes training more realistic for first responders. 

“We have so many different events coming up this spring and summer, mass gathering events. Our K-9 assets are out there providing proactive protection for people in our communities,” said Dudley. 

Building a bond, to help protect and serve. 

“As you get time on the job and time with a dog, the bond gets really really strong. Him and I are very, very close,” said Dodge.