'Not every dog can be a K9'

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TILTON — Twice a month, a handful of officers from the Danville Police Department gather in a small warehouse near the edge of Tilton and hide various quantities of heroin, methamphetamine and crack cocaine around the room.

Then, one at a time, dogs bound in, each with their handler in tow. During a Monday training session, the police K-9s darted from an overturned houseplant to a set of lockers along a wall, then investigated a stack of cots leaning against another, before returning to the lockers again.

There, they went rigid and sat still on the floor, waiting for their reward.

“Good boy,” Danville Officer Stephen Rannebarger said, throwing a toy in front of Jack, a Belgian Malinois, for a burst of tug-of-war.

Then Jack was off to find the next stash of drugs.

The practice is routine for Rannebarger, who has trained with his second police dog for more than seven years. But it’s still relatively new for two other Danville officers who have become K-9 handlers after the department contracted with Midpro K9 for two specially trained canines in April.

“I love it. It’s basically what I’ve wanted to do since being hired on,” Noah Darr, an officer in Danville for two years, said of working with Judd, a German Shepherd.

“Obviously, who doesn’t love dogs?” he continued. “I love dogs, and just getting to work with them is really fun to watch. I like doing the dope work with him, I like training him, doing the obedience — just because when he looks at me, that’s my guy right there.”

Tony Piatt launched the Tilton-based dog boarding and training business in 2010 after retiring as a K-9 handler from the Danville Police Department.

The estimated 25 police dogs he has trained since then — the majority being German Shepherds, Belgian Malinois, Pointers and Labradors — have all come to the U.S. at around a year old after being hand-selected from a breeder in Europe.

The pooches begin as “green dogs” but must exhibit certain talents from the start that distinguish them from the rest of the litter. A strong “prey drive” guarantees a K-9 has the desire to chase an object and stop its motion, while a “retrieve drive” marks its interest in returning something caught to the pack — i.e., its handler.

“A lot of people will be saying, ‘Oh, my dog would be a good police dog; he has hunt drive,’” Piatt said. “What do you mean? ‘Well, I can hide my ball and he’ll hunt for it.’ OK, these dogs, if we hide a ball and we don’t come back, four hours later, they’re still going to be looking for that ball.”

Once hired, Piatt surveys police departments for their needs and officers engage in a four- to seven-week training course with their provided K-9. Instead of using food, exercises primarily consist of using play as an incentive for the dogs to practice apprehending suspects and become familiar with the smells of different controlled substances or explosives.

It’s crucial for K-9s to bond with their handlers, but Austin Shelton, a Danville officer who was paired with with a German shepherd named Knox in April, said taking on the role can also be “extremely stressful” as it requires constant upkeep in off-hours to ensure the dogs remain trained.

While the K-9s become members of their handlers’ families, officers must integrate their dog in a way that maintains their role as a working dog instead of a pet. Rannebarger said his wife can walk his K-9, but Jack will only respond to apprehension or tracking commands from him.

“I spend more time with my dog than I spend with my own family,” Rannebarger said. “We’re together at home, we’re together at work, so we develop a pretty strong bond through all the time we spend together.”

Trained K-9s provide a unique resource because they’re the only law-enforcement tool that can be both deployed and recalled, Rannebarger added. A Taser can’t be canceled after it’s been discharged, but an officer can call back a K-9 that’s in pursuit as soon as a suspect surrenders.

Other than drones, K-9s are also one of the only tools capable of going around corners. That very morning, Rannebarger said he responded to a reported burglary in a large commercial building. Instead of officers wandering the space, his K-9 directly located the suspects hiding in a room.

Further, Piatt noted that dogs’ noses allow them to not only detect drugs in vehicles from the air outside them, but also track down missing people and small bits of evidence like firearms thrown in tall grass fields.

And a K-9 doesn’t even have to apprehend someone in order for their presence to help crowd control, Piatt said.

Courtney Schleman, one of Midpro’s trainers, studied at a dog-training academy in Texas before coming to Tilton. She said the law-enforcement side of animal work is distinct in that K-9s undergo such extensive training while already exhibiting standout temperament and obedience.

After wrapping up their training session last Monday, the Danville handlers walked their K-9s toward the door and threw their toy into the practice space, so each dog knew playtime was over but would be waiting for them when they returned.

Then, it was time to climb back into the waiting squad cars outside and get back to work.

“They’re held to a higher standard because they have an important job,” Schleman said of the K-9s. “It’s just like, not everyone can be a cop, not every dog can be a K-9 dog.”