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By Carey Reeder | Managing Editor

Jake Little turned a passion found at a young age into a full career, and he took the next step this year by taking over the Central Alabama Police K9 Training Association in Chilton County. Little took over the business that was operated by Sweet Davis of Jemison for the past 30 years earlier this year, and he is ready to continue to build on the good name she built up over the years.

“Arresting criminals and stuff is great, but when you are able to find a family member … It makes it more worth it,” Little said. “I want our surrounding communities to be a safe place for our families and kids, and I think through police K9s I think that is possible.”

Little grew up in Maplesville and took a real interest in his father Alden Little’s work in dog training. His father trained bird dogs, hunting dogs and retriever dogs, and Little worked on the training with his dad throughout his childhood. One day while the two were training, they ran into Davis training as well.

“I remember at a very young age me and my dad were training retrievers at the Maplesville baseball fields, and Sweet Davis was there training police dogs and we happened to run into each other,” Little said. “I was watching her dogs and I was thinking ‘That is way cooler.’”

A short time later, Little went out and purchased a Pitbull dog and began training it in more police work. Little continued to work with his dad, and he and Davis’ paths never crossed until about four years ago when he contacted her and the two met in Pelham. From that day, Little began working with Davis on dog training, assisting at handler schools and getting police officers certified with their K9s.

“She eventually came to me one day and said ‘Hey, would you be interested in taking this over?’” Little said. “I told her ‘I thought you were never going to ask me.’ We got all of it drawn up, and that was the story.”

Davis created a great name for herself in the K9 training world, and Little wants to continue that good reputation the business has by putting out reliable and effective K9s to police departments. However, Little does want to expand in the areas of community involvement and get out into the community more at events and schools — especially allowing children to see what K9s are capable of, but that they are also there to protect.

“We want to let (the communities) know that (K9s) are nothing to be scared about,” Little said. “The K9 cop is not something there to be scary, it is there to help and protect you. That is the direction I want to head (with the business).”

The business normally purchases a dog and trains the dog to be purchased by a police department or other entity, but Little also allows departments to bring in their own dogs to be trained. He has even trained stray dogs that people have found and turned them into reliable K9s that have gone on to serve in communities. Central Alabama Police K9 Training Association has put K9 dogs in departments in South Carolina and Tennessee to go along with communities here in Alabama. Little offers services for dogs that range from tracking for suspects or search and rescue, detection for narcotics or explosives and cadaver training to recover bodies.

Little recalled a story from last winter in Chilton County where a dog and handler that came through his training school helped find a young boy in the woods who wandered from his home in the frigid cold.

“My biggest hope from all this is that we are able to provide top quality, training K9s in our departments,” Little said. “I can train the dog, but the vast majority of where my time goes is training the handler to make sure he is not just the guy with a dog, but he understands the law, what is right and wrong and knows everything about how that dog works.”

After taking over Central Alabama Police K9 Training Association, Little moved the business to Thorsby where it resides at 509 Tuscaloosa Road, Thorsby. For more information about training, contact Little at 205-299-9643.