Manassas Airport hosts 80 training teams of K9s and their law enforcement partners

During the week of Jan. 4-8,  Manassas Regional Airport was overrun with 80 K9’s and their human partners.

GMU Master Police Officer and K9 handler John Arnold Jr. worked with Juan Rivera at the Manassas Regional Airport, Pat Colgan of Capital Aviation and Joe Gardner of Dulles Aviation to coordinate a Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments K9 Committee Training Day.

“Any time that the Manassas Regional Airport can be of service to our law enforcement community is a bonus,” said Airport Director Juan Rivera.  “Security is of the utmost importance at the Airport and these K9 partners help to ensure security around the DMV (Washington, DC, Maryland and Virginia).”

K9 teams from Federal, State and Local government agencies met to work their dogs on drug and bomb sniffing exercises.  Training included working with two VRE trains and using two 34-passenger airplanes provided by Capital Aviation.

“It was very interesting to watch the K9 units working at the airport,” said Joe Gardner from Dulles Aviation.  “The dogs are very well trained and the officers were more than professional.  I was happy we could help them out with a training environment.  This group is a great asset to our community.”