K-9 Officer Ocho ready to play the game of “hide and seek.”
Cottonwood Heights PD, UT brings K-9 Ocho into the K-9 team.
In his three years as a K-9 handler at Cottonwood Heights PD, UT, Officer Michael Alcivar has worked with eight different K-9s as he has attempted to replace his first K-9, whom he lost to lymphatic cancer. In November 2016, he finally found a suitable K-9 partner, a 2-year-old German Shepherd and Malinois mix who is appropriately named “Ocho.”
After being purchased for Cottonwood Heights PD, K-9 Ocho went straight to narcotics training. “Ocho has a great natural drive and did awesome throughout narcotics training,” says Officer Alcivar. Alcivar explains that Ocho’s drive was so intense that it necessitated an adjustment in his training. “K-9 Ocho started finding ‘the hides’ quickly but then leaving them to keep searching for more,” Officer Alcivar explains. “We have since worked this out and his narcotics detection is now great. K-9 Ocho is enjoying his patrol training and is doing well in it. He has matured a lot since narcotics training and it shows in his obedience training.”
Now that he has completed narcotics training, Ocho conducts vehicle sniffs for his own agencies as well as others. He is also currently training in apprehension, and his daily tasks consist of obedience training, narcotics training, and narcotics deployments.
Officer Alcivar thanks the NPDF for its financial assistance in the purchasing and training of Ocho. “We had a hard time finding the right dog,” he says. “The NPDF’s financial assistance enabled us to go through a quality vendor, and obtain this outstanding K-9 partner.”
Written by Nicole Hymovitz
NPDF is proud to have assisted Cottonwood Heights PD, UT in the purchasing and initial training of Ocho.