{"id":151346,"date":"2026-10-15T21:02:57","date_gmt":"2026-10-16T01:02:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thevalleyledger.com\/?p=151346"},"modified":"2026-10-15T21:02:57","modified_gmt":"2026-10-16T01:02:57","slug":"paws-for-safety-jefferson-health-k-9s-dexter-and-cisco-host-training-seminar","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thevalleyledger.com\/?p=151346","title":{"rendered":"Paws for Safety: Jefferson Health K-9s Dexter and Cisco Host Training Seminar"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>LEHIGH VALLEY, Pa. (Oct. 15, 2026) <\/strong>\u2014 Jefferson Health&#8217;s weapon-detecting K-9s, Dexter and Cisco, welcomed fellow K-9 teams to Allentown this week for \u201cThe Practical Application of K-9 Teams in a Hospital Environment.\u201d K-9s and their handlers from hospitals across Pennsylvania and New York, along with local law enforcement agencies, attended the training program.<\/p>\n<p>The seminar was designed for hospital security departments that are considering starting a K-9 program and for existing K-9 teams to collaborate and discuss best practices. The dogs had a training day with sessions involving narcotics, explosives, firearms, apprehension work, and tracking. Handlers also heard from speakers who addressed topics such as the proper care of K-9s in emergent situations and what nutrition regimens working dogs should follow.<\/p>\n<p>Dexter, a male black Labrador retriever, and Cisco, a female springer spaniel, started making the rounds at Jefferson Lehigh Valley Region hospitals and events in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.lvhn.org\/news\/lvhn-introduces-weapon-detecting-k-9s\">early 2025<\/a>.\u00a0Two security officers, Ed Mayer and Kasey O\u2019Connell, are their full-time handlers.\u00a0Both dogs have successfully contributed to increased safety at hospitals and at health system and community events. They\u2019re now working on additional certifications for tracking.<\/p>\n<p>Information provided to TVL by:<br \/>\nPriscilla Turbitt<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>LEHIGH VALLEY, Pa. (Oct. 15, 2026) \u2014 Jefferson Health&#8217;s weapon-detecting K-9s, Dexter and Cisco, welcomed fellow K-9 teams to Allentown this week for \u201cThe Practical Application of K-9 Teams in a Hospital Environment.\u201d K-9s and their handlers from hospitals across Pennsylvania and New York, along with local law enforcement agencies, attended the training program. The &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/thevalleyledger.com\/?p=151346\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Paws for Safety: Jefferson Health K-9s Dexter and Cisco Host Training Seminar<\/span> <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":151348,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"{title}\r\n\r\n{excerpt}\r\n\r\n{url}","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[69,482],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-151346","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-in-the-valley","category-press-release-2"],"acf":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thevalleyledger.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/k9-seminar.jpg?fit=672%2C372&ssl=1","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/151346","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=151346"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/151346\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":151349,"href":"https:\/\/thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/151346\/revisions\/151349"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/151348"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=151346"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=151346"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=151346"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}