Sheriff's Office adds to its K-9 force

 LAURA CLARK/Ukiah Daily Journal

Sunday, January 30, 2005  -

 

The Mendocino County Sheriff's Office has just gained two new loyal employees, eager to start work as soon as they complete a four-week intensive training program.

 

K-9's Ben and Barry will join a pack of four other police service dogs employed by the local sheriff's office.

 

Ben is a 2-year-old German shepherd who will be the partner for patrol Deputy Jason Cox, a resident deputy assigned to Round Valley in the Covelo area. Ben will assist deputies with tracking, drug detection, apprehension and partner protection.

 

Barry is a 2-year-old Belgian Malinois and is assigned to patrol Deputy Joey DeMarco in the north county area covering Willits to Piercy, according to the MCSO.

 

"Every time the deputy is working ... if the vehicle is running and has a cage in it, his partner will be with him," MCSO Canine Unit Commander Lt. Phil Pintane said.

 

Both dogs -- at an initial cost of $5,000 each -- were purchased without the use of county funds, according to the Sheriff's Office. K-9 Barry was purchased with funds received from the Mendocino County Major Crimes Task Force asset forfeiture funds and K-9 Ben was purchased with donated monies from private citizens and businesses throughout the county as part of a fund-raising effort made in 2003 to purchase body armor for the K-9s in the Sheriff's Office.

 

The expense of a K-9 goes beyond the cost of the dog itself, however. Training tacks on another $1,800 per dog. There is also the cost of equipment: leashes, a dog kennel at the home of the dog's handler, a cage that the K-9 is housed in inside the patrol vehicle, etc.

 

"The initial four weeks of training is like a total immersion in a foreign language, so to speak; the only thing (during that period) that the deputy and the K-9 will be doing is training," Pintane said. This level of training for law enforcement dogs generally begins when they are around 2 years old, because they are no longer puppies and are at the point where they accept the training easily, he said.

 

In addition to the initial four weeks of training, the dogs' handlers also spend time training their dogs on their own, and there is also an ongoing group training where all the animals get together once a week for four hours with the certified trainer. The dogs have to be recertified every year, Pintane said.

 

Even before the Sheriff's Office gets the dogs, however, they are already somewhat trained, tested and proven by the person who sells the animals, he said. The K-9s even come with guarantees that they can be trained for the type of work the Sheriff's Office wants them for, he said. They are also guaranteed physically, he said.

 

"They are very intelligent animals, very smart," he said, referring to breeds such as the German shepherd, the Dutch shepherd and the Belgian Malinois.

 

They're also apparently bilingual.

 

Commands are learned in the language the dog was initially trained with, Pintane said, noting most of the dogs come from Europe. A lot of the dogs are German or Dutch. So, for example, a German shepherd may have been taught commands in German before being sold to the Sheriff's Office, he said.

 

All the time -- and money -- spent on training pays off.

 

"The dog is an asset in many ways," Pintane said. "First of all, it's protection for the deputy when there is no back, which is one of the reasons why Ben has gone to Covelo, because many times the deputies there work alone.

 

"In addition to partner protection, they can save many man hours in searching buildings and tracking lost kids," Pintane said.

 

"If you have a suspect you are looking for who has committed a serious crime and you believe he may be in a particular area, in order to contain that area you would need several deputies, but with a K-9 you would be able to cover an area that probably three deputies would be required to cover. In building searches, the potential for somebody being hurt is greatly enhanced; the dog can enter, conduct a search and do it quickly," he said.

 

The dogs have to be certified to do this, he added.

 

"If the suspect is a juvenile, for instance, we certainly don't want the dog biting (him or her), so when they find someone, they are trained to bark," Pintane said, unless the dog or its handler is attacked. A K-9 will also bite if its handler commands it to do so.

 

The dogs are also helpful in drug detection.

 

"I have been told by experts in this field, if you took a bloodhound, or German shepherd or Malinois, and took their sensory system for their sense of smell ... if you could somehow measure that in an area, it would in some cases come to almost a square yard," Pintane said.

 

Contributions are still being accepted into the K-9 fund, which is used strictly for the K-9s and their handlers for things such as training, equipment and other needs as they arise.

 

Anyone wishing to make a donation may call the Sheriff's Office at 463-4411 or send their donation to the Mendocino County Sheriff's Office K-9 Fund at 951 Low Gap Road, Ukiah, CA 95482.

 

The K-9s also make public appearances at schools and other events. For more information, call 463-4411.