Demonstrations were done with each dog performing a mock attack of one of the officers who was playing the role of the criminal. Each dog had its own method of handling the criminal which depended on its training as well as its personality. One dog was trained to simply sit and bark at the 'criminal' and would not bite unless the officer in charge of the dog was attacked himself by the 'criminal.' The other two dogs were trained to bite first, ask questions later, so to speak. One of the dogs would leap right off the ground hitting the 'criminal' high on his chest. The officer commented that Belgian malinois, which are sometimes used in police work, are famous for this type of behavior. They are a higher energy dog than most German shepherds.

These three dogs and their partners are the only canine units covering five jurisdictions in the area. They are on call 24 hours a day, but each does work a specific shift.

The canine unit program has been in place in our area since 1992. It was pointed out that these dogs are rarely being used to chase down people and bite them. In fact, in all there have only been three times the dogs have actually bitten a suspect. They are only deployed when it is absolutely necessary.

The dogs also perform other tasks such as drug and bomb searches. Drug sniffing dogs are often trained to search for the substance, and to bark and scratch at where they smell the drugs.

However, this would be a very bad thing for a bomb sniffing dog such as 'Mex' to do. Mex did a mock bomb search, and in this demonstration you see what he does when he finds something -- he simply sits by the source and orients toward it.

About the dogs, and the officers:
     Don is an 8 year old German Shepherd from Czechoslovakia. Don is trained in narcotic detection, tracking, building searches and handler protection. Don has been instrumental in narcotic related cash seizures of over $70,000 and multiple pounds of marijuana and cocaine. Don's partner, Deputy Terry Ruley, has been a K-9 handler for 6 years.

Mex is a three year old German Shepherd. He is a dual purpose explosive detection and patrol dog. Deputy Jason Huber is a Field Training Officer and he and Mex are members of the SRT and Bomb Disposal Teams

K-9 Officer Scott Hodson has been with the K-9 Unit since it started in 1992. Scott's current partner is a German Shepherd named Andy. They have been together since 1998. Scott is also one of the department's Field Training Officers.

Of course as is usual, Orca was quite willing to say 'Hi' to each in turn. Our wolves are quite used to smelling dogs on visitors, but we can only wonder what their dogs thought of this wolf smell...