Following the events of September 11, 2001 Chris Byrne, founder of Stonehill Kennel L.L.C. was appointed as the Director of K-9 Bomb Detection Services for the World Trade Center Recovery Mission for the Federal Emergency Management agency (FEMA). Mr. Byrnes' responsibilities included supplying, training and supervising 7 Bomb Dogs Teams throughout New York City. During this time our dogs protected Governors, Cabinet members, World leaders and dignitaries, celebrities, the director of FEMA, the director of the FBI and former Mayor Rudolph Giuliani just to name a few.

Detector Dog Demo

Utilizing some of our veteran dogs and Handlers from the World Trade Center Recovery Mission we will demonstrate the superior sense of smell of these incredible animals. The dog handlers will explain how detector dogs are trained, the many uses of detector dogs and what odors the dogs are trained to detect. They will then perform a simple demonstration of the dogs’ abilities by hiding a harmless training aid in a safe location. The training aid can be hidden among an assortment of boxes luggage or in an area designated for the demo. A question and answer time will follow the demonstration. Estimated run time 15-20 minutes.

Police K-9 / Shutzhund / Protection Dog Demo

This demonstration will show how dogs are trained to use their inherent protective instincts to serve man. These dogs are safe, social and friendly family members that interact in every aspect of family life. Only when called upon do they display their protective abilities. We will demonstrate how these dogs can interact with members of our training staff until they are exposed to a direct threat. The dog will protect the handler until the threat is gone. Once the threat stops the dog can again safely interact with our staff. Question and answer time to follow. Estimated run time 15-20 minutes.

Basic and Advanced Obedience Demo

Our staff will utilize both our own dogs and customer dogs to demonstrate our training techniques. The dogs will perform the different exercises they have been trained in with the distractions of the crowd and other dogs. A narration of the different exercises will walk the crowd through our program from basic to advanced obedience. Question and answer time to follow. Estimated run time 15-20 minutes.