Our founders come from two seemingly unrelated backgrounds—one, a military veteran turned Deputy Sheriff and K9 handler; the other, a veterinarian. But when Matt Lovelace and Dr. Rob Presley’s paths crossed in 2015, they bonded over their mutual passion for K9 safety.
About KILO-9
A Need for Advanced Training
Together, Matt and Rob recognized a tremendous need for K9 handlers to learn life-saving skills to treat K9 officers in the line of duty. Existing training taught handlers the basics of working with their K9 partner: how to deploy the dog, the importance of recall, and even basic first aid. But it simply wasn’t enough.
Matt and Rob put their skill sets together and began designing and implementing high-intensity, realistic tactical training to teach critical skills to K9 handlers; and in 2017, the KILO-9 Foundation was born as a registered 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization.
K9 Safety Principles
Today, KILO-9 provides relevant and realistic K9 training to law enforcement officers by hosting medical trainings and tactical workshops with law enforcement agencies across the country.
Our state-of-the-art trainings use equipment and teach K9 handling principles that simply have not been available before in law enforcement.
Our trainings teach three primary principles for maximizing K9 officer survivability:
Injury Prevention
Many K9 injuries in the line of duty can be prevented if handlers use smart and responsible tactics for working with their partners. We teach handlers how to effectively and responsibly work with their K9 partners to avoid injury in the first place.
Medical Intervention
In the event that an injury is sustained, handlers must have the appropriate training and equipment to intervene quickly. Using Canine Tactical Emergency Casualty Care (cTECC) guidelines, we teach handlers how to appropriately respond to injuries in the line of duty.
Remaining Calm
Demeanor ties it all together. Our workshops help reinforce baseline fundamentals through repetition and crafted scenarios, so that when handlers are faced with a real-life emergency, they can remain calm and easily execute what they’ve been taught.
