“A Call For Help”
 

The summer of 1986 was hot as well as lethal for three police K9 dogs in Florida and Ted Smith, a K9 Deputy of the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Department, did not want lose any of their dogs!

Deputy Smith called an old High School friend that he knew had the ability to design an alarm that would alert the Deputy if the temperature in his patrol vehicle got to hot for his K9.

This call and plea for help was made to his friend John Johnston, owner of Radiotronics, a communications and specialty electronics company. John with his love for animals took on the challenge with no hesitation. John’s first step was to do research. He spent many days and nights riding with the local Palm Beach County Sheriff’s K9 units, watching, observing details and asking questions to learn what the Deputies needed. He found that there were situations when the Deputy must leave his K9 in the vehicle while he is away. In this situation he leaves the vehicle’s engine running and the air conditioner on to keep the K9 cool. This puts the K9 at risk of heat stroke if the vehicle’s air conditioner fails or the engine stalls. What was needed was an alarm system that would monitor the vehicle’s interior temperature where the K9 was located and alert the Deputy if the temperature got to hot.

Proto type alarms were built and tested utilizing various alert features including honking the horn, activating the blue lights, rolling down the rear windows and activating a beeper worn by the Deputy. Within a few months “K9 Lifeguard™” was born. It even monitored the vehicle’s engine because if the engine stalls the air conditioner would stop cooling. This double protection feature alone back in 1986 was way ahead of its time

Three years into the success of K9 Lifeguard™ installed in hundreds of Police vehicles, requests for a product to possible save the Deputy’s life came to Radiotronics. John learned there were situations when the Deputy was out of his vehicle and needed to be able to release the K9 out of the vehicle to his rescue.

So began the research and development of our first K9 door opening system. It was named K9 Lifesaver™ to be similar to the other product K9 Lifeguard™.

K9 Lifesaver™ was designed to allow the officer, when away from his vehicle and finds himself in trouble to be able to by remote control open the backdoor of his vehicle where the K9 is located with a push of just one button. This enables his K9 partner to quickly assist him. With the safety of the dog foremost, John designed the very first K9 door opening system back in 1989 with the neutral safety feature that disables the unit when vehicle is in motion, John once again, way ahead of his time!

Radiotronics has received many letters and recognition for the K9 products. K9 Lifeguard™ has saved countless K9s from needless suffering and death caused by heat stroke and K9 Lifesaver™ has saved the lives of many K9 handlers. These officers have families that need them and because of K9 Lifesaver™ they are still around to be there for them. One of the most moving stories that we were written to about was a deputy that had responded to a domestic call, he decided to approach the home without his K9 partner to hopefully calm the situation down but unfortunately the confrontation turned violent and the male suspect began to fight with the deputy. It escalated to the point of breaking both the deputy’s wrists and just as the suspect was trying to get the deputy’s gun, the deputy pressed the K9 Lifesaver’s remote transmitter button that released the K9 out of the vehicle. The K9 which had been witnessing his partner getting hurt came out of the vehicle with an attitude to change who was getting hurt. This was accomplished with great ferocity and dispatch. What the suspect had started the K9 finished!

Needless to say the deputy’s wife and children were very grateful that he had a K9 Lifesaver™. This is just one of many stories that we have received over the years and every story reminds us how important the work is that we do on the K9 products.

We received suggestions for a product that combined our K9 HEAT ALARM® and K9 DOOR POPPER® into one unit, so in 1996 we created Hot-N-Pop®. To date, Hot-N-Pop®PRO has become our most popular product with K9 handlers all across our nation.

Recently we have developed the next generation of canine products. Reviewing all that we had learned over the last sixteen years and incorporating the Power of a Microprocessor, we have created the most sophisticated K9 Electronics Products ever devised.

Since 1986 we all have been on a constant mission to provide the best, most reliable equipment we could develop and manufacture for our K9’s and their partners.

All of these years of research and development and many lives saved started with “A Call for Help” from a K9 handler to man with a love for animals and his fellow man who had a company that could produce the K9 products that are in use all over this great nation!