Arlo, a 9-year-old German shepherd and retired K-9 from Thurston County Sheriff’s Office in Washington, paid a visit to Santa Clarita at Hart Park on Monday morning.   Along with Arlo and Tyler McCoy, Arlo’s owner and handler, a few others joined in the excitement, including OneTigris , a tactical and K-9 gear company, Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department deputies and Blue Line Dogs, a therapy dog nonprofit organization for first responders.   Arlo, a K-9 Purple Heart recipient, was a patrol dog with the job to pick up on scent, helping the sheriff’s office find evidence or find people. Arlo was in the line of duty for almost three years before he was put into early retirement due to an injury.  “In 2021 … he got shot in line of duty and during that, it was a pursuit that he was going to get the guy, and during that, there was an exchange of fire, and he got shot. So, he got shot on the left, rear leg, which was a through and through. Then he got shot in the right leg, which hit his shoulder, and then bounced to his C4 and C5, and shattered it,” McCoy recalled.  Arlo was rushed to a local veterinarian, but they were only able to do so much, McCoy said. He added that Arlo was transferred to Oregon State University about five or six hours away.   “At the Carlson School of Medicine for Vets, and they did an amazing job. (About) 12 hours later, they were able to repair as much as they can, kind of put his vertebrae back together,” McCoy said.  Tyler McCoy, the owner and handler of Arlo, poses with Arlo, a retired K-9, at the “Picnic with the Pack: K-9 Arlo is Back!” event at Hart Park in Newhall, Calif., Monday, June 22, 2026. Kamryn Martell/The Signal McCoy said Arlo has been retired since 2021 and remains active and plays with McCoy’s other dogs on 10 acres in Washington.  He added that seeing Arlo’s story reach so many people makes him proud that his incident did not stop them from doing something good and making something positive out of it.  When asked about misconceptions that the public has about K-9s, he said these dogs are not aggressive animals, they do not always bite a person, and suspects do not have the power to make the dogs do something bad because handlers use German commands.  “I think that it’s very old school to do it. Wherever your trainer’s from, that’s kind of what you go with … but I think people thought it was so the bad guy couldn’t say the command to get out. I promise you, the dog’s not going to listen to the suspect (and they will not be) going to tell my dog what to do. He doesn’t know who this guy is,” McCoy said.  McCoy said he knew he and Arlo would click immediately when he first met him at Cabela’s, a retailer that specializes in outdoor recreation – prompting him to want to get K-9 certified so he could be paired with Arlo.  OneTigris Tactical and Dog Gear and Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department smile for a photo at the “Picnic with the Pack: K-9 Arlo is Back!” event at Hart Park in Newhall, Calif., Monday, June 22, 2026. Kamryn Martell/The Signal Tiger Han, founder of OneTigris, which provides the gear Arlo uses, said he was reminded why he started his company when he met Arlo in person.  “Honestly, the best part of today was getting to see our gear out in the real world — not in a photo shoot, but on a dog actually doing the work. There’s a kind of quiet pride in that you don’t get from a sales report. Meeting Arlo in person reminded me why we started this company in the first place,” Han said in an email statement.  Jey Wagner, president and CEO of OneTigris, said it is a special thing to be able to support local causes and even causes that spread across the U.S., like Arlo.   “But thinking of the community as a whole, for canines, it’s very special for us, because, you know, one big part of our (OneTigris’) mission is stay close to the communities that we serve. And so, by us being involved in this, that’s a big part of it,” Wagner said.   The post Retired K-9 visits Hart Park appeared first on Santa Clarita Valley Signal. ...read more read less