By Owen Sexton
The Chronicle, Centralia, Wash.
ONALASKA, Wash. — On Friday, Dec. 5, My 2 Scents K9 owner Kristi Bridgman officially christened her new Onalaska dog training center with a Centralia-Chehalis Chamber of Commerce ribbon-cutting ceremony.
During the ceremony, Bridgman thanked her father, David Nelson, for providing the building where My 2 Scents K9 is now located.
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“Thanks dad, for letting me have this building,” Bridgman said.
“Oh no, no, no, you confiscated it,” Nelson replied jokingly.
She also thanked her husband, Steve Bridgman.
“Steve, this is not what he thought retirement was going to be, at all,” Bridgman added.
A retired King County Sheriff’s Office deputy, detective and K9 handler who served for over 27 years, Bridgman also founded the K9 Kuva Memorial Foundation, which honors the legacy of Bridgman’s former K9 partner Kuva by promoting educational K9 events at local schools and supporting local law enforcement. Additionally, she serves as an evaluator for the International Police Canine Association.
Kuva and Bridgman originally became partners in 2011 after Bridgman was selected as a drug dog handler for the Eastside Narcotics Task Force.
It was during her time on this task force that she and other regional K9 handlers formed a training group that met once a month.
After Kuva’s retirement from police service, Bridgman began working with a bomb dog instead of a drug dog, but continued helping train drug dogs for other police agencies. Bridgman and Kuva performed demonstrations for schools and citizen academies to help promote safety and security from illicit drugs based on deterrence, intervention and prevention.
On top of hosting free monthly drug dog training sessions for police K9 handlers, Bridgman also works with various local schools, including the Onalaska School District, with her new K9 partner Clover, a trained drug dog who does demonstrations for students.
The My 2 Scents K9 training center is located at 585 Leonard Road in Onalaska.
To learn more about the dog training services offered and the K9 Kuva Memorial Foundation, visit My 2 Scents K9’s website at https://www.my2scentsk9.com/home.
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