Lt. Paul Curtis of the Loudon County Sheriff’s Office was the guest speaker at the monthly meeting of the FBI Knoxville Citizens Academy Alumni Association on Monday night. Curtis trains and handles dogs for the LCSO and for an FBI task force.
I was impressed to learn that the dogs from Loudon County have received national recognition. They have won several competitions, including one at the 2011 World Police and Fire Games in New York.
Lt. Curtis said he prefers to use Dutch Shepherd Dogs and Belgian Malinois as police dogs. They are smaller than German Shepherd Dogs and easier to lift into places such as attics that need to be searched.
Lt. Curtis and Deputy Chris Jenkins demonstrated some training and combat techniques with a dog named Diego. Jenkins gave commands to Diego in Dutch, because that was the language the dog’s breeders used. Many police dogs come from breeders in Europe.
Curtis is also affiliated with the Lakeview K9 Academy in Loudon. Their Facebook page and YouTube channel have most of the same photos and videos from the Power Point presentation that Curtis showed to the FBIKCAAA on Monday.
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