COLORADO SPRINGS — Colorado Springs Police K9s and their handlers deal with stressful situations all the time on the job.
Tuesday, News 5 got an inside look at how these officers train for their work.
Thanks to Hellscream Entertainment, the K9s got a unique opportunity to train inside the haunted mines.
CSPD said the idea is to get the dogs into a seemingly hostile and stressful environement so they know exactly what to do when duty calls.
"So we were placing actual narcotics, hiding them in various places, teaching the dog to basically trust his nose and that odor and narcotics can be anywhere," said Officer Andrew Genta.
Full training for new K9 teams takes about 600 hours or about six months. Even when that's done, maintenance training happens at least once for several hours each week.
