Whitehall Township Police Officer Richard Garner and his K-9 partner Onyx were among 15 police canines and their handlers who pitted skills and training in the competitive K-9 Trials, hosted by Salisbury Police Department at Salisbury High School’s athletic field Sept 27.

In addition to Whitehall, teams were entered from Allentown and Salisbury and Lower Saucon townships in the Lehigh Valley, as well as from the Reading area law enforcement agencies in Berks County and from the Worcester County Sheriff’s Office in Maryland.

Competitive events included categories of obedience and agility, drug detection, an obstacle course, a fastest dog competition, a perpetrator extraction from a vehicle event and a “call-off’” that measured a canine’s call-off obedience after being dispatched to capture a decoy in a bite suit.

Ron Angst, of Bangor, was the volunteer in the protective bite suit. He said he has been involved in police canine training activities for 20 years, and he is comfortable being a decoy on the receiving end of a charging police canine.