Well, on this show, and as our name indicates, we love to shine the spotlight on our students as well as our teachers, administrators, support staff, and even our K-9 officers.

You heard right.

CCSD's K-9 unit has been around since 2018, and they are doing important work.

Gun detection dogs include K-9s King, Peppermint, and Jack, and narcotics detection K-9s Oreo and Ace.

I love those names.

What many people may not know is that other law enforcement agencies also reach out when they need help.

(Lt.

Bryan Zink) Right from the beginning of the K-9 team, it got out into the community and then also with our handlers networking and training with other departments that we had the most and the most available gun dogs available in the valley.

So right from the get-go, our handlers started getting call-outs nights, weekends, holidays, you name it.

They're available if an outside agency needs help looking for a gun.

And now Narcotics, they can reach out to us, and we help.

And then it's also been very beneficial for our federal partners, because they'll go out with the ATF, they'll participate with different groups that do big events during Super Bowl, sporting events, major events in the valley.

We'll get called out to come out and assist them as well.

-Well, one of the original K-9s will soon be retiring.

We caught up with K-9 King during one of his daily school stops.

We even got a little demonstration of what a day-in-the-life of a CCSD K-9 looks like.

I can tell you, it's pretty impressive.

Check it out.

(Joseph Thomas) You got it?

Did you find something?

You got it?

There you go.

Good boy.

-The good boy doing a good job is K-9 King.

-He is the original dog in the team.

He's Dog No.

1.

-And Dog No.

1 has a very important job to do.

-You ready?

Find it.

His job is to find guns in the school.

Sometimes he finds snacks, but he's really good at finding guns.

He's found 44 in his career.

Did you find something?

Woo!

Good boy!

-King, who hails from Scotland... -He came over as a puppy.

He's lost his accent already, but it's okay.

-...has been with CCSD's K-9 unit for seven years and for the last five has been partnered up with Officer Joseph Thomas.

-Everybody knows King.

It's very unique to have a gun-searching dog.

-On this day, King's duties included a visit to Sierra Vista High School for what's called a "random sniff."

-I don't know till that day where I'm going.

I show up at the high school.

I asked the principal to take me to the four classrooms.

And the kids walk out of the four classrooms, and he goes through, smells the bags, makes sure there's no weapons or anything in there.

I hid it myself.

He searches for guns, so we hide oil, metals, things like that that have the same odor.

See, he's got that really happy tail.

He'll do the check-backs at me.

He'll try to convince me that it's there.

And because of that, he gets paid with his toy.

Just like that.

Good job, buddy.

Good job.

So now we're all done.

We'll let the kids say hi.

We'll pass out his Pokemon cards and move on to the next.

-Yep.

You heard right.

King and the other K-9s on the team even have their own cards, and they are a hit.

-Do you want one?

I got you.

I got you.

You guys go back in once you get a Pokemon.

You want one?

-Yes, I want one.

-There is no doubt K-9 King is treated, well, like royalty wherever he goes.

-King is a working dog, but he's also very friendly.

So he keeps the school safe, and he makes friends along the way.

-Speaking of friends and because it's not all work and no play, King had a playdate with his buddy Dude, the school's therapy dog.

K-9 King is still a few months away from retirement day, but Officer Thomas is already getting mentally prepared for when that day gets here.

-That's going to be tough.

It'll be hard not to have him in the truck anymore.

We spent so much time together.

He's earned his rest and he's earned every treat and tennis ball coming his way and he's earned the couch, but I'm going to miss him.

-And judging by all this love and attention, there is no doubt K-9 King will also be missed by the students and the teachers.

-No one's usually excited to see me.

As soon as King comes out, everyone's happy, wants to pet him.

He's the best tool we can use to connect with everybody.

Good boy.

-How cute is that?

Well, K-9 King is set to retire sometime this summer, and I've already invited myself to his retirement party.

K-9 King, by the way, will continue to live with Officer Thomas and his family, and I have a feeling the very popular King will still be visiting students even after he retires.