Desert Dog Police K-9 Trials in Mesa name Top Dog in law enforcement

MESA, Ariz. (KSAZ) - The Desert Dog Police K-9 Trials took place at Sloan Park in Mesa over the weekend.

Over 40 K-9 from local police and military agencies from California, Boston, and even Mexico, are running the race to be named Top Cop.

"It's a competition designed for us to showcase our training and our abilities with our police dogs," said Officer Scott Callender of the Mesa Police Department. "There's really not too many events like this. Obviously for us, the ultimate challenge or the ultimate competition is when we're doing our job for real, but when we come out here and we get to put our abilities against those of our peers, there's a lot of pride involved in that, but we do also compete for trophies."

Teams have to compete in obedience, bite work and search techniques.

A spectator sport that is sure to catch the crowd's attention.

"It was amazing what they can, how they can train them and use commands to stop," said a spectator.

"They were well trained and obedient. They could jump the walls, they got pretty high over the walls," said another spectator.

"There's probably no better public relations tool for the police department than a police dog because everybody loves dogs. This event is really good for that because they can come out. They can see what we do, they'll have a chance to interact with us, interact with our dogs," said Callender.

Trophies are awarded first through sixth place and there's an overall Top Dog position with a combined score from all seven events.