CRESTVIEW — Dogs often chase boys. Wednesday evening, a pack — literally — of boys chased a dog.
Actually, it was several packs.
The boys were Cub Scouts from Crestview Packs 530, 731, 732 and 790, with a visitor from Niceville Pack 52. And the dog chase was part of this week’s Twilight Camp.
“The whole week centered around a CSI theme,” Pack 530 adult leader Chris Foster said, adding it stands for “Cub Scouts Investigation.”
Cub Master John Humphrey of Pack 799 coordinated the weeklong Spanish Trail Park camp, which met from 4 until 8 p.m.
The event had an emergency services theme, Humphrey said.
“We wanted the boys to build a camaraderie with law enforcement officers,” he said. “With all the negative stuff that’s been going on, we wanted them to know that cops are our friends.”
BOYS AND K9s
Wednesday, the boys learned about the Okaloosa County Sheriff’s Office K9 division’s duties from Deputies John Dueñas and Joe Trimboli and their partners, K9 Axel and Esuda.
After the boys hid a chew toy, which represented a suspect, somewhere on the park’s 26 acres, Dueñas and Axel took off in search of the target.
The 28 Cub Scouts, one Boy Scout and several adult volunteers followed in hot pursuit.
Several of the scouts remarked on Axel’s ability to sniff out the toy’s trail despite the many scents from different people who visited the park that day.
That the scent was fairly fresh was one reason for Axel’s success, Dueñas said. The other was a dog’s olfactory sense.
“He has 225 million scent receptors,” Dueñas said. “People have about 5 million.”
OUTDOOR ACHIEVEMENTS
The Cub Scouts also worked toward outdoor achievement awards through target shooting with BB guns — a new skill recently added to the Cub Scout activities roster — along with archery, archeology, a hike and metal detection, Foster said.
“We’ve had some really interesting things for them to do this week,” he said. And their favorite activity?
“Shooting BB guns and arrows!” Michael Sagona, 8, and Darrin Jaime, 7, said almost simultaneously. Foster’s son, Jacob, 7, however, had a different preference.
“The dog’s the best,” he said.
This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: Crestview camp teaches skills, law enforcement appreciation (PHOTOS)