Anyone planning a visit to the Veterans Memorial Museum in Chehalis on Wednesday, Feb. 26, might notice more than a few regional law enforcement K9 units conducting drug searches,
Don’t be alarmed.
The dogs and their handlers will simply be conducting training with Kristi Bridgman, of Onalaska.
It is part of free monthly regional drug dog training sessions Bridgman is organizing for police K9 handlers throughout the region.
Bridgman is a retired King County Sheriff's Office deputy and detective who was also a K9 handler and is the founder of the K9 Kuva Memorial Foundation, which honors the legacy of Bridgman’s former K9 partner Kuva.
Additionally, she also serves as an evaluator for the International Police Canine Association and runs My2ScentsK9 training and services in Onalaska, her personal professional drug and bomb dog training business.
The Chronicle spoke to Bridgman on Monday, Feb. 17, to learn more about the work of the K9 Kuva Memorial Foundation and the drug dog training sessions she’s organizing, including the upcoming session at the Veterans Memorial Museum.
Kuva and Bridgman originally became partners in 2011 after Bridgman was selected as a drug dog handler for the Eastside Narcotics Task Force. It was during her time on this task force that she and other regional K9 handlers formed a training group that met once a month.
“Even after Kuva retired, I continued doing (training) on my days off,” Bridgman said.
After Kuva’s retirement from police service, Bridgman began working with a bomb dog instead of a drug dog, but continued helping train drug dogs for other police agencies. Bridgman and Kuva performed demonstrations for schools and citizen academies to help promote safety and security from illicit drugs based on deterrence, intervention and prevention.
“The bomb dogs always had a good regional group that always got together, and the drug dogs really didn’t have that so much, so I wanted to bring it back,” Bridgman said.
Though Kuva has since died and Bridgman has had to deal with both the COVID–19 pandemic and family issues, she’s now attempting to restart the monthly drug dog training.
“In the past, I used to have Kelso and Vancouver come up, and I’m just slowly starting to rebuild that group,” Bridgman said. “Because all the handlers from before, except for the one Quinault guy, aren’t working with dogs anymore.”
Having been retired for a year, Bridgman has been working to reconnect with police K9 handlers throughout the region.
“I just want to rebuild that training community again and give them opportunities,” she said.
Training with fellow K9 handlers is also beneficial for the dogs, as the drugs used to train them vary from area to area.
“The dogs need variation, and by getting these guys together, they can also learn from each other or if they have a problem with their dogs they can ask a fellow handler or me,” Bridgman said. “Most of the drug dogs around here don’t have dedicated trainers at their department, because most departments only have one drug dog. Even in King County, we had only two when I was working.”
Currently, K9s from the Quinault Police Department, the Tacoma Police Department, the Kelso Police Department and others could be in attendance during Wednesday’s drug dog training, as long as their handlers don’t have anything unexpected come up.
“It’s slowly picking up again, but I’ve got another week to plan,” Bridgman said.
Though she plans on holding future drug dog training events at different locations, including possibly Tumwater and Lakewood, she intends on returning to the Veterans Memorial Museum in the future to hold more drug dog training sessions.
On top of hosting free monthly drug dog training sessions for police K9 handlers, Bridgman also works with various local schools, including the Onalaska School District, with her new K9 partner Clover, a trained drug dog who does demonstrations for students.
“It’s a deterrence factor, show the kids what the drug dogs can do and that a dog may show up at school. Hopefully to give that deterrence factor, kids thinking, ‘Well we don’t know when the drug dog is gonna show up so we’re going to go ahead and not bring our drugs to school,’” Bridgman said. “We’re not going to stop kids from bringing drugs to school, but if we can at least give them that deterrence it can make them think twice.”
And though K9 Clover’s searches are meant to only be demonstrations, if Clover does actually find something, Bridgman uses it as an intervention opportunity to try to help the student.
“Drugs are a huge problem and I believe if we can educate younger, maybe we have a chance of saving a couple kids,” she said.
To learn more about Bridgman and K9 Clover’s work in the K9 Kuva Memorial Foundation or to donate to help fund Bridgman’s training sessions, visit the foundation’s website at https://www.my2scentsk9.com/k9kuva.
Donations can also be made by texting “sniff2deter” to 44321.
Training costs include the cost of purchasing drugs to use for training, travel expenses and occasional fees to use certain venues for training.
The Veterans Memorial Museum is located at 100 SW Veterans Way in Chehalis.
