Routt County Sheriff’s Office deputies Aaron Clock and Jake Doolin will travel with police K9s Winston and Murray to Delta County to participate in the High Desert Police K9 Challenge on Saturday, April 22. 

The K9 Challenge invites police K9s from Utah, Wyoming and Colorado to compete in categories that include obedience, agility, detection, fastest dog, hardest hitting, hardest biting and muzzle work.

According to Clock, narcotic detection events will take place on Friday, April 21, and agility and obedience events will happen Saturday. Clock and Winston secured Paws n’ Claws in Steamboat as their sponsor for the event. 

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Murray and Winston will compete in events that they already had training for, in addition to being trained for new events they are not accustomed to. 

“Some aspects of the competition we had to train on a little bit outside of our normal duties,” Clock said. “For instance, they’ll have to run through tubes and jump up over things in an obstacle course.” 

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Clock noted the organizers of the event do keep some agility aspects of the competition secret because they want to see what the dog is capable of doing without training or preparation. 

He said around 25 teams come to compete in this event and it is intended to raise money for the High Desert Police K9 Association to provide training to these dogs on a monthly basis. Clock said this money will mostly cover the expenses and travel costs of instructors who travel around Utah, Wyoming and Colorado to train these dogs. 

The handlers of the competing K9s had to raise money for the event and there is also a raffle.

“It’s a fun event for people in Delta County and surrounding areas to come to the fairgrounds in Hotchkiss and watch the competition,” Clock said.

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