By Elizabeth Dinan
edinan@seacoastonline.com

Portsmouth police can now say it has a top dog.

During the eighth annual Iron Dog Challenge, a three-mile obstacle course run by police dogs and their police officer handlers, Portsmouth's Rebecca Mansfield and her canine, Viktor, emerged as the top female team. Held at the New Hampshire Police K-9 Academy at Pease International Tradeport, Saturday's event pitted man and beast against the elements and obstacles.

"It's a three-mile run with the dog and handler who have to surmount the same obstacles," explained David Ferland, a Portsmouth police captain, former K-9 officer and Iron Dog Challenge coordinator. "If the dog has to jump over a fence, the handler has to jump over a fence. If the dog has to crawl through a tunnel, the handler has to crawl through a tunnel. And snow always adds to the excitement."

Conducted near the National Guard base, access to the event by the media was prohibited by the Guard. But during five hours of reported through-the-woods and obstacle-fighting challenges, winners emerged from about 30 participating teams.

Portsmouth police officer Rebecca Mansfield and Viktor, a German Shepard.
Portsmouth Herald file photo


The event was sponsored by the nonprofit Working Dog Foundation, which provides seed money for police K-9 teams throughout New England. The dogs are trained for police searches, patrol and tracking, as well as drug and bomb sniffing.

Also receiving top honors were Manchester's Nicole Bujnowski and her shepherd, Fritz, and Barbara Sykes with her yellow lab disaster dog, Jazmin. Sykes was representing the Federal Emergency Management Association from Boston.

In the male team category, top dog was German shepherd Kruger with handler Jason Champli of Sanford, followed by Joe Ryan of Manchester with Argo, the returning champions who lost the top spot by 12 seconds.

A "Grungy Award," given to the team who emerged from the course the dirtiest, was bestowed upon Steven Tenney from the Keene Police Department with dirty dog Laika.