LARGO, Fla. — Largo Police Officer Patrick Newbill and K9 Murphy have been working together eight years.

  • Largo Police K9 team competing on America's Top Dog
  • Winning team gets $10,000, additional $5,000 for charity
  • Team's episode airs January 22

"It’s a bond that I can’t really explain,” said Officer Newbill. “He’s more than a pet, he’s a partner, he’s my best friend, he’s family."

Together, these partners are taking criminals off Largo streets.

Now, they’re taking on a different challenge: reality TV.

America’s Top Dog is basically a competition for the ultimate K9, explains Officer Newbill.

"On the show we have to do, it’s a very extreme obstacle course," said Officer Newbill. “It’s something that most of these dogs have never seen before."

With two weeks to prepare, Officer Newbill says training was difficult.

"Tried to get creative and create things maybe the dog hasn’t seen before," said Officer Newbill.

Murphy was selected from some 700 applicants.

Five teams face off each episode.

"Swimming, climbing, jumping, running, apprehension, worked through a ropes course, detection in a maze," said Officer Newbill.

Officer Newbill can’t talk about the outcome of the show, but he did tell us what we can expect in his episode, which airs January 22.

"You can expect a lot of excitement, I’m very proud of how he did, I’ll leave it at that," said Officer Newbill.

While we don’t know yet what happened, we do know about this pair’s bond.

"We’re in sync. That’s the one thing I know we had over anybody else," said Officer Newbill.

According to A&E, the winning team each week is awarded $10,000. That winner also selects an animal charity to donate an additional $5,000.

The network says top competitors will return to compete for $25,000 and the title.

"If we were to win, any of the money that we would win for the agency would go toward building a K9 compound," said Officer Newbill.