By Frank Wendling
RED BANK – On Feb. 26, viewers of A&E Network’s “America’s Top Dog” competition show got to see a local hero on TV.
Red Bank Police K-9 Hunter, a 6-year-old Belgian Malinois, got to the finals with his handler Patrolman Stan Balmer. The show is a competition for police and civilian dogs and their handlers to compete “nose-to-nose,” according to the show’s website. There are three different obstacle courses where the canines show off their agility and skills.
Hunter weighs 75 pounds and stands 38 inches tall; he is very agile and proved to be a worthy competitor.
The police department received an invitation from the show’s producers to compete. “Originally, the chief got a letter in the mail asking if the K-9 unit was interested and I stepped up and said that I would give it a try,” Balmer said.
Team Hunter headed out to the filming location in Santa Clarita, California in June 2019 to compete against five other canine teams in agility, scent and attack skills in three events.
The first event was the K-9 Combine, followed by The Doghouse and finally The Boneyard.
“The first event was something we have never trained before, so it was a challenge to adapt to,” said Balmer. “Hunter is good with environmental, but we did have a hard time on the bridge and suffered a 2-minute penalty due to not completing the rope bridge part of the course. But we blew through the water event with no problems,” Balmer said in an interview at the police station.
The Red Bank team got to the finals against Team Kai, another due from New Jersey consisting of handler Detective Cpl. Mike McMahon and K-9 Kai, also a Belgian Malinois, from the Morris County Sheriff’s Office.
Balmer said he was “shocked” and “honored” to get to the final round. “I was very excited because there were a lot of good competitors,” he said.
Hunter had some amazing highlights on the show. In the scent-tracking event where the dogs search for scented items scattered throughout the course, Hunter and Balmer found all of the items and broke a record by doing it in the least amount of time.
Did Hunter get a treat at the end of the show for his extraordinary performance? Officer Balmer chuckled. “He gets treats like a ball or a tug,” he said. “But for the last round of the competition, the bite suit that one of the actors was wearing was his treat.”
The article originally appeared in the March 12-18, 2020 print edition of The Two River Times.
