Our rookie team Flaming Chickens Team #24184 Animal Allies Season
This season's theme is how Animals and people can improve interactions with one another. Our team has chosen to focus our project on k-9 officers. They came up with this idea from a fire fighter who suggested we talk to a local police officer. Our coach reached out to 3 different surrounding counties Douglas, Paulding and Carroll County k-9 officers. They were all gracious enough to give us their time. Officer Kilgore spoke to us over the phone to give us information about his dog Vero, a Belgian Malinois. and what they do as a team. We learned that the k-9 officers live with their handlers in their home. When the animal has finished their officer duties and are ready to retire they stay with their handler and live out their days as a family pet. Deputy Matt Harper of the Douglas County Police Dept and his dog Avery are part of the bomb squad. Avery is an explosives expert and is trained to sniff over 14 explosives. Avery was able to give us an actual demonstration at our HQ. We got to see her ballistics/stab and the cooling vest she has available to her as well. Deputy Harper was very gracious in coming to see us and letting us meet Avery. She is an awesome Black Lab. We also spoke with Officer Chase Sheppard of the Carroll County Police Dept about his dog Scottie. We interviewed Dr Brandt Tolbert several times. He is a vet in Alabama. One of our coaches knows him. We found out that a normal dog heart rate varies depending on the size of the dog. For the breeds we are normally k-9 officers their normal heart rate is 80-120. Normal dog temperature for a dog is 100-102. A heat stroke is a non fever hyperthermia. This happens when an animal can’t dissipate excessive heat. This drives up their body temp. When their temp gets to over 107-109 this can be fatal. If treated quickly the dog can make a full recovery. They need to be cooled off with cool water over their head and neck, IV fluids and monitoring of their heart and blood work. Heat Stroke in dogs like in humans can be fatal and lead to a blood disorder where all the blood in their body clots if they are not treated quickly and correctly. Getting the animal used to working in these hot temperatures slowly and regularly is key. Once they are used to it then you can slowly increase their amount of time they are working.
Our idea to help k-9 officers and their handlers is to create a way for the handlers to help prevent heat stroke and to give them more information to help prevent it. Signs and symptoms of heat stroke is excessive panting, bright red tongue, spoon tongue, thick saliva, vomiting, diarrhea, shock, coma and death. We are calling our idea the Vero Chip. The idea is to take microchips like dogs already get and alter it. You take a printed circuit board and put a thermistor on it and an infrared emitter
Our idea to help k-9 officers and their handlers is to create a way for the handlers to help prevent heat stroke and to give them more information to help prevent it. Signs and symptoms of heat stroke is excessive panting, bright red tongue, spoon tongue, thick saliva, vomiting, diarrhea, shock, coma and death. We are calling our idea the Vero Chip. The idea is to take microchips like dogs already get and alter it. You take a printed circuit board and put a thermistor on it and an infrared emitter