Whitfield County Sheriff's Office K9 Team To Be On Reality TV Series In January

Whitfield County’s beloved drug dog, Eddy, and his handler, Deputy Todd Thompson, will be appearing in the new A&E show called “America’s Top Dog” that debuts at 9 p.m. Wednesday, Jan. 8, 2020.

Filming of the show actually occurred back in June, and for the past five months, Mr. Thompson has been sworn to secrecy. Even now, he can’t reveal the eventual outcome of the 11-episode series being produced by the same company as “American Ninja Warrior” and “Live PD.”

The series brings together top K9 cops and civilian dogs alongside their handlers as they compete nose-to-nose on the ultimate K9 obstacle course.  “America’s Top Dog” is hosted by veteran sports broadcaster Curt Menefee alongside expert dog trainer Nick White and sideline reporting by seasoned sports reporter and animal rescue ambassador Jamie Little.

 In each one-hour episode of the series, four police K9 teams, including fan-favorites from “Live PD,” and one civilian team will face off for the title of “Top Dog” in three rounds of high velocity, furry competition.

The skilled teams will be tested on their speed, agility, and teamwork by completing a series of expert tasks on a massive obstacle course including navigating a complex maze for scented items and apprehending and taking down a suspect in a bite suit, among a variety of other challenges.

Each week’s winning team will receive $10,000 for their department and another $5,000 to donate to the animal charity of their choice.

In the final week of competition, top competitors will return to the finale course to battle for the title of “America’s Top Dog” and an additional $25,000 cash prize for their department.

Mr. Thompson can’t comment on whether he made it to the grand finale or even how he did in his first episode, but he can reveal that the whole experience was a thrill and an honor for him.

“I’m just thrilled and excited to be a part of this,” he said. “I never knew and never imagined that I’d be doing what I’m doing. I just thought I’d be a guy with a dog, you know – a K9 handler with a dog just doing my job and just coming to work and giving the county their eight hours a day and supporting the community and being out here protecting and serving. I just assumed that that’s what I was gonna be doing.”

It's turned out he and his K9 partner are doing much more than that, though Eddy doesn’t seem to be aware of his new-found fame.

“It’s just another day for him,” Mr. Thompson said. “He don’t understand how popular he’s fixing to get. He don’t get that, he’s just a dog. He just loves going to work with Daddy; he’s just along for the ride.”

But what a ride it has already been, as Mr. Thompson told the host of the show, Jamie Little, on set in a California canyon this summer.

“Eddy’s a fantastic dog,” he told Little. “Really and truly, he’ll do kinda whatever I tell him to do, whatever I ask him to do. He aims to please me, and that’s what he’s all about – ‘Hey Dad, what you want me to do? I’ll do it if I can. If I can’t do it, let’s just try to work through it together and figure out how we can do it, and I’ll do it.’”

Eddy asks for little in return for pleasing his master, Mr. Thompson points out, “to play with that toy a little bit, to go home every evening and get those two treats from my wife.”

Whitfield County figures to play prominently in the show, with at least two special local angles.

The first is the send-off video that each contestant was required to send to the producers. Mr. Thompson’s was done by a creative young Dalton resident named Karstan Davis and features a big crowd of family and friends that gathered at Kelly’s restaurant on Highway 41 to wish him and Eddy well on their big adventure. You can watch it on the Whitfield County Facebook page.

In fact, even workers on the show were impressed with the quality of Davis’ work. “One of them came up to me out there in Los Angeles and asked me who did my send-off video,” Mr. Thompson said. “I told them a young man named Karstan Davis did it, and they said it was the best send-off video of any contestant they had. They said they didn’t even edit it.” That’s saying something for a TV show to be saying that about you. I told Karstan what they said, and it tickled him to death. Maybe it’ll help the boy out in some way in his career.”

Another key Whitfield County angle involves one of Mr. Thompson’s late co-workers at the Sheriff’s Office, Lt. Fran Rice.

He and Rice were neighbors when Mr. Thompson was growing up, and they maintained a close relationship until the day Rice passed away this summer, just shortly after filming ended.

“Fran was a dog handler for the military in the Philippines,” Mr. Thompson said, “and when he got out, he came to work for the Sheriff’s Office and ran a dog for us several years ago. When the sheriff decided to have a drug dog again this time, Fran was so positive and really pushed for me to apply for the job. Fran’s been a very influential positive influence in my life.”

Just before his death in June, Mr. Thompson was asked to present Rice’s retirement badge to his wife, Kim, but a few days later he called her to ask if he could borrow it back for a short time.

“What for?” she asked.

“I’m going on this show and I’m going to take Eddy’s badge off his chest and put Fran’s badge on Eddy’s chest and I want to run the course in honor of Fran,” Mr. Thompson explained. “He’s fighting for his life, he was a dog man, he’s been good to me, we’ve kept up with each other throughout the years, he’s been nothing but an encouragement for me, and I think he would like that. She said, ‘Honey, come and get it!’”

Mr. Thompson says he wanted to use the badge for Rice and his family, not for any publicity, but once he got to Los Angeles, a representative of the show saw Eddy wearing the badge and asked why it had Lt. Rice’s name on it. Later, he was asked to comment on the badge’s significance during an interview that hopefully will make the final edit for the show.

“I called the family and asked them if it was OK to talk about Fran on national TV, and they said absolutely,” Mr. Thompson said.

In addition to Rice, Mr. Thompson says he feels like he is also representing all the K9 dog handlers in the area, many of whom he has befriended over the years since he began working with Eddy.

“I’ve had a lot of K9 handlers from all around the region reach out to me and say, ‘Man, we feel like you’re honoring us by being on this show, we’re proud of you because you’re one of our guys.’ And it makes me feel good. I’m kinda representing not only the Sheriff’s Office, not only Whitfield County, not only the community, but I feel like I’m representing more – the counties and agencies around me, too.”

Now that he and Eddy have been successful in regional and national competitions over the past three years, Mr. Thompson remain grateful for the overall experience.

“Ever since I’ve touched him, my life has slowly started to change,” Mr. Thompson said. “At first, I didn’t realize it, but now I do realize how much my life has changed because of me meeting that dog. He came to me at the right time in my life. I needed him and maybe he needed me, and we’ve done very well with this adventure.”

Their latest chapter together has taken them to Los Angeles, and Mr. Thompson believes the show will be “very well received” by viewers.

“It’s a very family friendly show,” he explained. “The show’s not out to make anybody look like you just can’t do the obstacles. Everything’s set up not for failure because it’s a fun, family friendly atmosphere and we’re all winners at the end of the day. Nobody’s set up to get disgruntled, nobody’s set up to get a dog hurt, nobody’s set up for failure. So if your dog can’t do something, they’ll allow you to keep trying to do that obstacle. And if you can’t do it, there’s things in place that allows you to get through it or you can take a time penalty and move on.”

Mr. Thompson says he and Eddy and the other contestants were treated like royalty, though the pace was often hectic.

“It was just a whirlwind,” he says, “and I didn’t really have time to enjoy it because it just happened so fast because when I was there on set, it was strange. You know, they’d say, ‘Hey, Todd, we need you up top – you’re next for the interview so you and Eddy go up top and do an interview. I sat up there for over an hour and asking Eddy to lay there with me while they’re asking me all kinds of questions: ‘Where’d you grow up? How many square miles is Whitfield County? How long you been at the Sheriff’s Office?’ Then I’d be finished there and go back down and put Eddy up in a camper, drink me some water, take a little break, and then they’d say, ‘Hey, Todd, we need you over here for pictures, so we’d go over there and spend 30 or 40 minutes with a photographer trying to get the right picture with the right angle, doing things over again. Then we’d take another break, and it was “Hey, Todd, we need you back up at the interview. Just one sentence. You can just go up and say one sentence. A plane flew over while you were saying something earlier. We need you to say it again.”

Though he and Eddy competed on the first day of shooting, Mr. Thompson isn’t sure exactly when their segment will appear, because of the editing process.

“It might be Jan. 8, it might not be,” he said. “If I do great or if I don’t, I’m still gonna watch all 11 shows because I’m a part of it. If this thing is successful, 10 episodes down the road, I’ll get to look back one of these days and say, hey, I was Season 1.”

As he anticipates their appearance on national TV, Mr. Thompson has a good feeling that the show will have a positive impact on him and the community. “There’s something around the corner, I imagine, with this show,” he says. “I imagine there’s something good coming from this show that’s around the corner. I just don’t know what it is yet.”