The National Police Bloodhound Association is holding its annual Spring Training Semtnar in McHenry, Maryland on Aprii 28th. The six-day event which wiii enci May 3’d,and is a 40-hour Man-Trailing Law Enforcement Bloodhound Training and Certification program which is made up of eight-hours of Classroom and 32 Hours of Field Training.
This is the 4th consecutive yeff that this annual training event has recently been in Garrett County. The NPBA was founded in 1962 by the Connecticut, Rhode Isiand, and New York State Police. It presently has 200 members from all over the United States. Last year, seminar hosted 69 participants from 47 different Law Enforcement Agencies from 19 states and} countries, including Germany at this particular seminar. Among the 18 administration and field instructors this year, groups will be broken down into a student/instructor ratio of 4:1.
Field training will consist of urban, rural, hard and forest work with trails up to 30 some hours old for some teams and the teams will be training all around Garrett County in the towns and parks. Previously to 2015, the NPBA conducted this seminar in Cattaraugus County, New York frorn 2AA0 b 2014, but frcm the late 1980’s up until 200A, estabiished its host location at the 4-H Learning Center near Bittinger on Route 495. The Seminar offers training and certification. Certification is valid for one-year.
The NPBA holds two seminars each year, the Garrett County seminar in the Spring, and the other in October in North Carolina. Both seminars are arlapproved Licensure and Certification Course of the Maryland Higher Education Commission provided by the Continuing Education Workforce Development Department of Garret College issuing 4 Continuing Education Units. The host location for the Ganett County Spring Seminar is the WISP Resort in McHenry, Maryland.
