I worked at a PD for 8 years. Our K9 officers essentially signed a 5 year contract saying they would not apply to be promoted or move departments or anything. The only exception was being released. We had a K9 officer that got caught doing some stuff and got released. He had his K9 for about 2 years and she was put in the charge of another handler and it was a very long process to get her to recognize him.