09/04/2026
A message from AMU K9 Team Coordinator, Courtney Connellan:
Over the last several days, you’ve seen a lot of posts about South Toms River’s K9 Loki.
You’ve seen the agencies, the flight crew, the veterinary teams, the handlers, and the first responders who came together when a routine training day suddenly became a medical emergency.
But there is another part of Loki’s story that deserves to be talked about.
What happens before a critically ill or injured working dog reaches a veterinarian?
Veterinary emergency and specialty hospitals provide an incredible level of care. But when a K9 is critically ill or injured in the field, there can be a significant period of time between the onset of that emergency and arrival at definitive veterinary care.
That time matters.
Hemorrhage doesn’t wait. Shock doesn’t wait. A compromised airway doesn’t wait. Heat illness, respiratory failure, traumatic injuries, and other life-threatening emergencies don’t wait for the doors of a veterinary hospital.
That is the gap AMU K9 has been working so diligently to close.
We believe appropriately trained first responders should have the knowledge, skills, and confidence to recognize a life-threatening K9 emergency, begin appropriate care within their training and scope, and help get that dog to definitive veterinary care as quickly and safely as possible.
This isn't about turning paramedics, EMTs, firefighters, or K9 handlers into veterinarians.
It's about what happens before the veterinarian.
It's knowing how to assess a K9 in shock. How to control catastrophic bleeding. How to support an airway and ventilation. How to establish access when appropriate. How to recognize when a dog is deteriorating. And, just as importantly, knowing when that K9 needs a higher level of care and how to get them there.
K9 Loki showed us what that continuum of care can look like.
Handlers recognized that something was terribly wrong. Veterinary professionals began emergency care and stabilization. When Loki needed a higher level of specialty care, an entire network of law enforcement, EMS, communications, aviation, and veterinary medicine came together to move him forward.
No single person saved Loki.
A system did.
And systems only work when the people within them are trained, prepared, willing to work together, and understand their role.
For the last year, AMU K9 has advocated for advanced prehospital K9 medical education because working dogs deserve a continuum of emergency care that doesn't begin when they reach the veterinary hospital.
It should begin where the emergency begins.
We train for the minutes in between.
We train because someday the K9 in front of you won't be a mannequin or a training scenario.
Someday, it may be a K9 just like Loki.
And when that day comes, AMU K9 Team wants you to be ready.
K9 Loki’s story is exactly why we do this and why he is now home with his handler and family. 🐾💙
AMU K9. Making the world a better place, one K9 at a time. 🐾
