Photo: Des Moines Police Department
(Undated) -- A Des Moines Police dog is in a nationally televised competition this weekend. "Bero" is in the K-9 Dog Detection Challenge. It's on ESPN-2 Sunday night at 9 o'clock. The competition is hosted by the American Kennel Club and the U-S Police Canine Association, and will feature the dogs who specialize in sniffing out drugs and explosives.
The first-ever competition will feature 20-police dogs from across the nation. Breeds range from the Belgian Malinois to German Shorthaired Pointer to Weimaraner.
The dogs will navigate obstacles and sort through distractions to find the hidden items. They are scored on the accuracy of their search, the perfection of their alert (telling the handler where the hide is), and the find itself (a combination of the ability of the dog and the handler to accurately tell judges where the hide is located).