Sunday Small Business Spotlight: Precision K9 Detection, LLC | Idaho
LEWISTON – Two local business owners joined forces in 2021 to form Precision K9 Detection, LLC; Amity Larsen of The Good Shepherd K9 Training and Cassie Frary of Snake River Four Paws.
Amity and Cassie actually have working dogs that are littermates. Amity explains, “I wanted a Search and Rescue (SAR) dog that was in California. There was three to pick from and I couldn’t choose, so my husband’s like, ‘why don’t you just buy all three and get rid of whatever you don’t want?’ And I did.”
Both are volunteers for Lewis County Search and Rescue, so naturally Amity gave Cassie call, “So, I kind of did a thing…” , and that was when the idea for Precision K9 Detection, LLC was formed.
Cassie says for her, its out of a desire to be able to wok her personal dogs and do it in a way that helps the community. “We’ve got certified narcotics dogs, certified evidence dogs (also can be considered article dogs), tracking, trailing dogs. and tobacco and vape dogs.”
“If parents think that their children are doing drugs, we are happy to come in and talk to you about that and deploy our dogs and run and see what we can find. We do have good working relationships with the local law enforcement communities, so if we were to come across narcotics, that is reported.” Cassie explains, “Even the schools with the tobacco vape, they can also go into private residences if that’s something that they want us to look at. Gunshot residue or weapons, ammunition, things like that. We’re getting ready to take on an invasive species canine for the Corps of Engineers, so they will be looking for those nasty little muscles on watercraft. Anything that is detection related, if we have a dog that can do it, and between all the dogs that we have, there should be somebody.“
Amity adds, “So say you go on a hike and you lose your cell phone and you need someone to find it, we can send a dog out and we can find it. Let’s say you lost something that was important to you, a keepsake, a piece of jewelry or whatever. One thing to keep in mind though is when your item goes missing in the environment, it takes it a certain amount of time for it to acclimate to the environment and not stand out to a dog’s nose.”
It takes a lot of time, dedication and hard work to keep the dogs certified, healthy and ready to go at a moments notice. Anyone can benefit from their services, and have confidence in knowing that these are the same dogs and handlers that law enforcement will also trust. “Any dog that is certified in a discipline, and this is not the training to certify, but you’re just keeping up your dog’s abilities to reliably do their job, is about four hours a week per discipline. Always keeping up on trends and new information that comes out on these things, or different training aids that might come out. Everything we do is based on industry standard. We train with other handlers frequently and we certify to Idaho State Police standards. We go and we meet the same standards that law enforcement canines do. It’s important to us that we’re not deploying dogs that are not proven.”
Precision K9 Detection, LLC is a resource to the community. Twenty people out looking for something, one dog can find in less than an hour when used appropriately and in the right setting. When time is crucial, such as when a person is missing or lost, having dogs that are trained for the task and ready to go is critical.
To learn more, visit Precision K9 Detection, LLC’s website or Facebook page. Precision K9 Detection, LLC can be contacted by phone at (208) 791-0021 or (208)791-4113, email them at precisionk9det@gmail.com
***If you own or know of a local small business that you would like to see in our Sunday Small Business Spotlight, reach out to us by email at darlenelambert@bigcountry977.com
