WHITNEY POINT – The close relationship between man and dog has been evident for millennia, and earning the title of “man's best friend” took thousands of year of living – and working – side-by-side in concert.

Often when we think about K-9s, an image of a police dog seeking out drugs or a dalmatian and a fire truck come to mind. But service K-9s are utilized for a variety of tactical purposes and undergo hours of rigorous training for many other purposes, as was displayed at Dorchester Park in Whitney Point over the weekend.

Search and Rescue K-9 teams from up and down the east coast joined local dive teams on Saturday and Sunday in participation of Water Workout Weekend, a skills training and teamwork building event organized by Amigo Search and Rescue Dogs, Broome County Water Rescue Response Team, and Eagle Valley Search Dogs.

The collaborative event was aimed at familiarizing search and rescue dogs in water search and recovery techniques, as well as honing “ground search” skills.

“The difficult thing with drownings is that reports from eyewitnesses are often very unreliable leaving divers to search over massive areas which sometimes places them at incredible risks,” said Nina Sorochynskyj, of Eagle Valley Search Dogs. “With the help of trainings like this, we're able to take the dogs out on a boat and teach them to search the water and really narrow down the area, making the search much more efficient.”