{"id":197971,"date":"2026-03-19T16:42:10","date_gmt":"2026-03-19T16:42:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/197971\/"},"modified":"2026-03-19T16:42:10","modified_gmt":"2026-03-19T16:42:10","slug":"florida-sheriffs-launch-k-9-march-madness-tournament-to-crown-states-top-dog","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/197971\/","title":{"rendered":"Florida sheriffs launch K-9 March Madness tournament to crown state\u2019s top dog"},"content":{"rendered":"

PENSACOLA, Fla. — Florida\u2019s law enforcement K-9s are facing off again in a statewide \u201cMarch Madness\u201d style tournament that invites the public to help pick the \u201cTop Dog.\u201d<\/p>\n

The K9 March Madness Tournament highlights dogs that serve in a range of roles at sheriff\u2019s offices, including finding missing loved ones, chasing down criminals, and serving as comfort dogs for students at schools.<\/p>\n

Three Northwest Florida K-9s are in the running for top dog.<\/p>\n

The Escambia County Sheriff’s Office submitted ‘K9 Rigby’ into the competition.<\/p>\n

Santa Rosa County submitted ‘K9 Ozi,’ and Okaloosa County selected ‘Beau.’<\/p>\n

Voting is conducted online.<\/a><\/p>\n

Voters are asked to select \u201cvote\u201d for one K-9 in each matchup, then enter their name and confirm they want to pet the dog as a way to help ensure \u201cno robots are voting.\u201d <\/p>\n

After voting, a personal bracket appears showing that the round has been completed.<\/p>\n

Voting for this round ends on Monday at 7 p.m. EST. <\/p>\n

Updates throughout the rounds will be posted on FSA\u2019s Facebook and Instagram pages.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PENSACOLA, Fla. — Florida\u2019s law enforcement K-9s are facing off again in a statewide \u201cMarch Madness\u201d style tournament…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":197972,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[28,30,29],"class_list":["post-197971","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-florida","tag-florida","tag-florida-headlines","tag-florida-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/197971","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=197971"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/197971\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/197972"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=197971"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=197971"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=197971"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}