photo by: Sylas May/Journal-World

Shadow and Cpl. Josh Doncouse, his handler, are pictured on Thursday, Sept. 17, 2026.

He’s getting older and a little slower; he’s walking a bit stiffer, but Lawrence Police Department dog Shadow still has what it takes to be a champ.

Shadow, age 7, proved that over the weekend at the third annual K-9 Games in Topeka, where he took first place in the “Keyless Entry” contest, a kind of agility course for police dogs. And his handler, Cpl. Josh Doncouse, said he does it not for a treat or a prize, but just because he enjoys his work.

“His reward is doing the competition,” Doncouse told the Journal-World on Thursday.

The games, now in their third year, featured 14 K-9 teams, and LPD said on social media that the contest raised more than $3,600 for Special Olympics Kansas. It’s a chance for the dogs to show off for the public, displaying the on-the-job skills they’ve learned for a good cause.

photo by: Lawrence Police Department

Lawrence police dog Shadow pulls on his leash before a competition in the K-9 Games on Sunday, Sept. 13, 2026, in Topeka.

photo by: Lawrence Police Department

Lawrence Police Cpl. Josh Doncouse receives the trophy in the K-9 Games on Sunday, Sept. 13, 2026 in Topeka.

Shadow has won at the games before; he took first in the sprint in 2023’s games. He isn’t as fast as he used to be – though he’s still faster than practically any human runner, Doncouse said – but in this year’s winning event, speed wasn’t as much of a factor. Instead, he had to go through a tunnel, jump through a window and onto a truck, and then bite the sleeve of a person standing in the truck bed.

On the job, the dogs frequently have to use all of those skills, though not all at once like in the exercise. They’ll jump into windows and vehicles, and they’re often sent into tight spaces where a person wouldn’t be able to comfortably maneuver.

“There are real-world applications to these, and we do put our dogs through these things,” Doncouse said.

Shadow himself has never gone in a tunnel on the job. LPD’s dogs are all trained for both narcotics and patrol work, but Shadow does a lot more on the drug-detecting side. Doncouse said the closest thing he’s done to the tunnel exercise outside of training was a search for a robbery suspect in North Lawrence who had fled through a thick tree line. People would have to army crawl to get through, he said, but Shadow had no problem.

Even if it’s not something he usually does, Shadow is very trainable, and he quickly learned that “if you go in the tunnel, good things happen for you,” Doncouse said.

“They’re very incredible animals, very smart, intelligent, athletic,” he said. “So it’s really fun to watch them perform, and also to see how fast they can learn.’

photo by: Sylas May/Journal-World

Shadow catches a Kong toy from Cpl. Josh Doncouse, his handler, on Thursday, Sept. 17, 2026.

Doncouse has watched Shadow grow and learn more than anyone. “He is my best friend,” not just a co-worker, he said, and they’re together practically 24/7.

“He’s a very outgoing dog, a very confident dog,” Doncouse said. He had a few surprises for his handler at first, such as his sensitive stomach – which is why he couldn’t get any reward at the games other than the thrill of participating. Doncouse said he’s come back to “surprises” in his car because of something Shadow ate that didn’t agree with him.

“I hadn’t had kids yet when I first got him,” Doncouse adds. “So actually, I give him credit, he prepared me for kids.”

Shadow can also be very vocal if he wants something.

When Doncouse first brought Shadow home, he was still working the midnight shift and would sleep during the day. “And I just hear in my house this howling, and I’m like, ‘What is happening?’ I was a brand-new handler, didn’t know what I was doing yet.”

A more experienced handler, Cpl. Kevin Henderson, told him that Shadow just wanted attention.

But Shadow, for the most part, only wants attention from Doncouse – he doesn’t like other people to touch him. If Doncouse goes out without him, such as to go for a run, Shadow will jump right on him and start whining when he comes back, he said.

“He just wants to do things,” Doncouse said.

photo by: SYLAS MAY/Journal-World

Shadow does his “prance” around Cpl. Josh Doncouse, his handler, on Thursday, Sept. 17, 2026.

Is Shadow a bit like some human competitors who play because they love the game? There are parallels between him and someone like former NFL tight end Rob Gronkowski – Shadow has a signature prance that he does, just like Gronkowski had the signature “Gronk Spike” celebration. But Doncouse said Shadow’s not as much of a party animal as Gronk. If he had to compare him to an athlete, he’d say Shadow is more like a LeBron James: “He’ll still be elite, but slowly start to fall off.”

While Shadow may be getting older, he’s not the type to ever want to retire.

“Staying at home to him is boring,” Doncouse said. “He just lays around and is kind of like, ‘OK, whatever…’ But whenever we get in that police car, man, he is high-energy, he’s whining, he wants to get out, wants to do things, wants to sniff cars.”

Police spokeswoman Laura McCabe said that’s just how these dogs work. She mentioned longtime police dog Cheeseburger, who died last fall at his “retirement home.” Cheeseburger had to move to a different home in retirement partly because Taz, the new dog his handler was training, was a constant reminder that he wasn’t working anymore.

“Cheeseburger wanted to work,” McCabe said. “He felt like, ‘This is not fun staying home. Why does this other new dog get to go work and I’ve got to stay home?'”

Shadow, Doncouse said, will “probably work till the day he’s like, ‘I can’t do this anymore.'”

“He loves it too much,” Doncouse said.

photo by: Sylas May/Journal-World

Shadow lies on the grass outside the Lawrence Police Department headquarters on Thursday, Sept. 17, 2026.