Two Bulloch County Sheriff’s K9 teams won awards recently at the National Narcotic Detector Dog Association (NNDDA) 8th Annual South Georgia K9 Seminar held in Perry, Ga.

Cpl. Mark Guarino and K9 partner, a Belgian Malinois named Gismo took 2nd place in the tracking division for “Pointy Ears (German and Dutch shepherd, Belgian Malinois and similar breeds), competing in a “double blind” human track for a mile.

Cpl. Ryan Norton and K9 partner Dutch, a Dutch shepherd, took 3rd place in the criminal apprehension division, where they participated in a “scenario-driven event to tactically search a commercial business to locate a suspect,” he said.

The Bulloch County Sheriff’s K9 teams competed against 82 teams from all across Georgia, as well as teams from Florida, Tennessee, Arkansas and Alaska, Brown said.

The week-long seminar encompassed classroom time as well as practical exercises in tracking, obedience and patrol work, narcotics, problem solving and more, he said.

Brown commended the teams for their performance.

The Bulloch County Sheriff’s Office hosted a NNDDA certification event in Statesboro in October. All three BCSO K9 teams – Norton, Guarino and Capt. Kirk McGlamery and his K9 partner Max, a German shepherd – achieved certification as mandated annually.