Hot Springs Village K9 Officer Nala steals the show at Audubon presentation!

Hot Springs Village Audubon Society Delights Villagers with a Special Event!

The Hot Springs Village Audubon Society had a treat for Villagers on Thursday, December 12! Audubon President Norma Wall introduced the special guests.

While Police Chief Kristi Bennett and Nala’s Handler Officer Elvis Caple presented a mesmerizing display to a standing-room-only crowd, it was K9 Officer Nala who captivated the audience. All eyes were on Nala as she demonstrated her incredible abilities. Of course, the remarkable skills and talents of Officer Nala would not be possible without the training and mutual respect of her handler, Officer Caple, and the leader of the department, Chief Bennett. We can thank the Chief and Officer Caple for facilitating and coordinating efforts to bring the department this needed and capable asset. The crowd was genuinely enthralled by her performance, showcasing the dedication and teamwork between the K9 unit and the agency.

Before Nala Came to the Village

The Chief said there are approximately 1.2 million police officers and fifty thousand K9 officers with different purposes registered to serve in the United States. “They can be used as dual-purpose dogs.” Some of their uses are for apprehension, search and rescue, tracking, bomb and explosive work, and cadaver search. “You don’t have a dog that can do all things.”

Bennett said dogs are very special and have an incredible sense of smell. When you walk into Grandma’s house and smell beef stew, a dog will specifically smell all the stew ingredients.

K9s can save the lives of officers and citizens. When doing research on police-involved activity during the last five years, it was determined a K9 officer could have been deployed approximately 95 times just for tracking individuals, alone. This data indicated a need for a K9 officer.

Officer Caple has had three dogs in his almost twenty-year career. Bennett assigned Caple to write a proposal to justify the need and how to pay for the K9 and associated expenses. A K9 is “extremely” expensive.

Costs

Some of the expenses associated with a K9 officer:

• Training – A trained, certified K9 costs around $38,000.
  • “Usually, these dogs are bred for this type of work and spend the first two years of their life training.” The K9 handler has no connection to the dog during the early years.

• Transportation – Secondly, there is the associated cost of a special K9 police vehicle. The K9 vehicle has a special box in the back seat so he/she can be comfortable during transport.
  • The box has alarms on it. When the officer leaves the vehicle, the air conditioner or heater runs to keep the temperature at 68 degrees.
  • The K9 handler also has a button he can push called a K9 Bailout, so if he is in trouble, the K9 will be released from the vehicle. The K9 vehicle runs around $100,000 to $140,000.

• Housing the K9 is an additional expense. As is customary, Nala lives with her handler at a home with a fenced-in yard.

• Veterinary / Medical expenses

• Diet

• Grooming

It is not unusual to have a startup cost of $200,000 for a K9.

How is Nala Supported?

“The best thing about the Village is the support. We have people here in the Village that love this community and love offering support.” Many generous donations have been made in support of Nala:

The Citizens Police Academy Alumni Association (CPAAA) is part of the police family when it comes to support and dedication. “They work diligently to ensure we have funding available to do things like this because it is so valuable for our community.”

Arvest Bank generously donated $25,000.

James Edmonds of James Fence Installation and More LLC kindly installed Nala’s fence at a much lower cost than was expected.

Ms. Nala was donated to the Village by the agency that found her in the shelter. This is rare, but they saw Nala’s potential and the Village’s need.

The Chief gave a shoutout to the Animal Welfare League, which is providing lifetime medical care for Nala.

Vested Interest donated Nala’s vest via a grant.

A medical kit for Nala was supplied through a grant. This kit is used if Nala happens to ingest drugs. But Nala is not interested in eating things as her motivation is a ball.

Nala Comes to the Village

Chief Bennett enthused, “Let me tell you how we got K9 Nala. One Saturday night, Officer Caple sent me a picture of K9 Nala and said, ‘Hey, this dog is located in Washington State.’ Ms. Nala and her brothers and sisters were bred to be K9s. The siblings serve on the Seattle Police Force, but Ms. Nala ended up in an animal shelter in Washington State.” Fortunately, Officer Caple saw Nala’s photo on Facebook.

A K9 company called Category 5 K9 out of Texas searches shelters for candidates to serve as K9s. They perform aptitude testing to see if an animal has the disposition and potential to serve. Nala showed great tracking and detection abilities.

Taking some convincing, Chief Bennett initially thought a shelter dog would not be suitable as a K9 officer for the Hot Springs Village agency.

“We knew it would be a risk, but we were willing to take that risk because we knew we had a great need in the Village. Could it be possible she could be qualified to come and work for us?”

After Category 5 K9 donated Nala to the Village, Bennett explained, “We put Elvis on a plane to Washington, where he spent two days, right at the Canadian border. After a few hours with Nala, he called and said, ‘This will work. She is incredibly smart. She’s talented. We believe she has incredible potential.'”

Elvis said, “Let’s bring her home.”

Dealing with spring storms, the duo barely made their connecting flight. Nala sat in Elvis’ lap during the plane ride.

Training

After arriving home, Nala was sent to K9 Solutions in the Tyler, Texas, area. They are one of the best K9 schools in the country. Nala’s training cost $5,000 and was paid for by the generosity of the CPAAA. K9 Nala spent four weeks in training and Elvis joined her for two weeks of the program. They are a certified K9 team. K9 Officer Nala and Officer Caple are certified in tracking people and items that go missing, and narcotic detection. Nala is also certified in obedience.

Nala only answers to Officer Caple. The Chief said Nala does not respond to commands from anyone else.

More Training

“Now we have her back home and she spent the next few months doing additional training.” She went to NAPWDA. This association trains military dogs, police dogs, Navy Seal dogs, bomb dogs, etc. This is a challenging course with very high standards, and it was unsure if Nala could certify.

On Nala’s last day of NAPWDA training, Officer Caple called the Chief and said, “We did it.” Nala attended the program with 40 other dogs bred to be K9 officers, but Nala was one of only 17 receiving NAPWDA certification.

Bennett proudly shared, “I am not saying our dog is the best, but we think she is.”

The Work Continues

“We are so excited to have her and already the two have done a tremendous amount of hard work here in the community.”

“Nala continues her training weekly. With Elvis, it is pretty much daily. Elvis is 100% an excellent K9 Handler, and he knows that it takes every single day. Elvis has dedicated his life. Ms. Nala is not only like a child to Elvis, but she is also his co-worker he is responsible for 24 hours a day. It is not like you can send Nala to the kennel when you want to go out of town. This is a dedication and service that Elvis is providing to the community for the life of Nala.”

K9 Officer Nala is treated like an officer, so she should not be petted.

Nala Showcases Her Talents

At the Audubon presentation, Officer Caple hid some drugs on the stage, and it was Nala’s mission to locate them. Nala, highly motivated by her love for a ball, was rewarded with her favorite toy upon completing her task. Check out the video below to see this and more with Officers Nala and Caple in action!

Special Organizations

• Hot Springs Village Animal Welfare League

• Hot Springs Village Citizens Police Academy Alumni Association A CPAAA class is coming up in February. If interested, watch the Police Department’s Facebook Page for more information. Click here to visit the page. The class is limited to 30 students.

• Click here to visit the HSV Audubon Society website.

Watch Nala captivate the audience at the Audubon presentation in the video below.

By Cheryl Dowden; Videography and Photography by Joe Dowden