What Changed

On April 1, 2026, the Joint Trauma System (JTS) published a new version of its K9 Clinical Practice Guideline on medical records documentation (K9 CPG 22). It supersedes the original from November 19, 2018.

The guideline covers military working dogs, not police K-9s. It is written for "veterinarians, human healthcare providers, canine handlers and other first responders who treat injured or ill military working dogs."

Eight days later, an Aurora, Colorado, police K-9 and his handler were both stabbed during a mental health crisis call. The officer was hospitalized for 20 days, and the dog was treated and later released from veterinary care, according to CBS Colorado.

What It Says

The guideline's main points are simple:

  • Documentation is part of care. JTS writes that "trauma documentation within the military trauma system supports optimal patient care and performance improvement." Records feed the Military Working Dog Trauma Registry, set up in 2017, which tracks trauma and disease and non-battle injury data.
  • The first person on scene starts the record. The K9 Tactical Combat Casualty Care card, DD Form 3073, "is filled out by the handler or provider who first attends to the canine's injuries."
  • The record travels with the dog. After treatment, "the K9TCCC Card must stay with the canine when handed off to the next treatment facility to provide information regarding continuity of care."
  • Veterinarians close the loop. Treating facilities document on a separate form, and the responsible provider reviews the record "for completeness and detail" before forwarding it to the receiving veterinarian and the trauma registry.
  • Data drives improvement. JTS says accurate records support trauma readiness, outcomes, standards of care, prevention and resource allocation.

The guideline does not say how handlers should be trained to document, and we are not inventing that part.

Why It Matters Operationally

Handlers are the dog's first responder. In a police K-9 incident, there is usually no veterinarian on scene. The handler or a cover officer will control bleeding and get the dog moving. If that care is not written down, the emergency veterinarian starts blind.

Handoffs are where information gets lost. A police K-9 may go from the scene to a patrol car, then to an emergency veterinary clinic, then to a specialty hospital. Every handoff is a chance to lose the tourniquet time, the medication, or what the wound looked like at the start.

The human side works the same way. The current TCCC Guidelines (May 1, 2026) tell responders to "document clinical assessments, treatments rendered, and changes in the casualty's status on a TCCC Card (DD Form 1380)" and to "forward documentation with the casualty to the next level of care." The K9 guideline applies the same rule to the dog. Civilian agencies work under Tactical Emergency Casualty Care (TECC) from C-TECC rather than military TCCC, but good documentation is not a military-only concept.

Registries only learn from records. The military has a working dog trauma registry. Civilian K-9 programs should ask whether they have anything comparable, even at the agency level. Without records, agencies cannot learn from their own injuries.

ODM's Position

This is a military guideline for military dogs, and police agencies should not adopt it wholesale. Veterinary treatment decisions belong to each program's veterinarian and state law.

The principle, though, carries over directly: whoever treats the dog first writes it down, and the record goes with the dog. That is cheap, simple and almost never trained.

The strongest counterpoint is that handlers already have too much to do at an officer-down or K-9-down scene. True. The answer is to make documentation fast: a simple card, a marker, and a habit built in training. A tourniquet time written on tape is better than an accurate memory that stays at the scene.

What Your Agency Should Do Now

  • Adopt a simple K-9 casualty card with your program veterinarian: injury, interventions, times, medications given, and the handler's contact information.
  • Keep it with the K-9 first-aid kit so it goes wherever the dog goes.
  • Train handlers and cover officers to document during K-9 first-aid scenarios, not after them.
  • Identify your emergency veterinary receiving facilities in advance and share the handoff card format with them.
  • Track your own K-9 injuries so your program can learn from them, even without a formal registry.
  • Include the K-9 in officer-down drills. A team plan should cover every member of the team.

Bottom Line

The Joint Trauma System's updated K9 documentation guideline is a narrow document with a broad lesson. The first person to treat a casualty, human or canine, owns the first page of the medical record. If that page doesn't travel with the patient, the next provider starts from zero.

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