Research Rocks - Especially With Dogs!

I enjoy writing books.  I'd better, since I do it so much!

I also enjoy researching what I write.  And I'm particularly excited about some of my newest research.

In a post a while back, I hinted that I'm working on a new idea for a Harlequin Romantic Suspense series that involves--what else?--dogs.  It's still not definite but looks very promising, and so I've been starting to research certain angles of it.

That led me to a really fun event this weekend: the Los Angeles County Police Canine Association's Police K9 Demonstration and Educational Public Safety Fair!

I was able to meet some K9 officers and their dogs and get some information from them.  And the demonstration itself was amazing--including having trained police K9s from departments all around the Los Angeles area do things like attack "agitators" --mock bad guys dressed in thick padded suits to protect them when they are jumped on and bitten as part of the K9s' training.  Oh, and agitators have to undergo training, too!

The demonstration started out when the president of the organization, addressing the crowd in the stadium of a local college, mentioned some sirens we heard off in the distance, saying he hoped that whatever was going on was resolved soon.  And it was!  Police K9 cars with sirens and lights on drove onto the grounds of the stadium, and a police helicopter flew overhead.  They were chasing a truck containing "bad guys."  One got out of the truck and ran, and was attacked by a loosed K9.  Another K9 checked out the truck after that and found another "bad guy" inside.

And that was just the beginning of the demo.

The police K9s are highly trained and clearly not only obey their handlers but also adore them.  It was particularly fun for me to watch since my dogs train me more than vice versa.

I definitely hope my series idea becomes a go, but in any event I'll do more research--and love every minute of it!