The Ohio State Highway Patrol opened its $1.4 million training facility for police dogs and their handlers on Monday. Located in Marysville, the facility gives a formal home to the training program the patrol started in 2015.
Trooper Jerad White was on hand for the opening, with his partner Danny on a leash by his side.
鈥淒anny is going to be 2 in March, coming up. He鈥檚 a Czech Shepard," White said. "He鈥檚 dual-purpose, like I said, in narcotics and bite works. He has passive indication, which means when he detects the odor of a narcotic he鈥檚 trained on, he lays down at source or he sits at source as his indication. As opposed to an aggressive alert kind of dog that would scratch the area."
To show off Danny鈥檚 abilities, White opens up the door of the SUV and Danny bounds out. White leads him around an old patrol car they now use for training, and Danny sniffs wildly, tail wagging until he settles on the driver side of the car.
鈥淭here was a marijuana hiden in the lower left seam on that driver鈥檚 door," White explains. "So since that鈥檚 a lower hide, it鈥檚 close to the ground, it鈥檚 common practice to instead of being in a seated position, 'cause he鈥檒l find it so low, since he鈥檚 closer to source that way, so he鈥檒l lay down for his indication, signifying that the odor he鈥檚 picking up is close the ground."
As a reward, Danny gets his toy, a chunk of PVC pipe. Lt. John Payer has worked with drug interdiction and K-9 units for years and says that play is an essential part of the process.
鈥淭he dog has no idea what marijuana, cocaine, methamphetamine - has no idea what that look like, only knows the odors associated with it - and he associates those odors with the toy that he鈥檚 looking for,鈥� Payer says. 鈥淪o on a traffic stop, the dog thinks he鈥檚 getting out to play and looking for his toy.鈥�
And while it may be play for the dog, it鈥檚 serious business for the drug interdiction program. Highway Patrol Superintendent Paul Pride says canines are responsible for some of the largest seizures in the patrol鈥檚 history.
He lists off some of the hauls dogs have helped discover from individual traffic stops: 鈥�81.6 pounds of heroin, 141.8 pounds of meth, 72.8 pounds of fentanyl, 202 pounds of khat, 2 gallons of liquid PCP, 165.3 pounds of cocaine, and the list goes on and on and on.鈥�
But the dogs don鈥檛 just help with narcotics busts. The dogs help locate lost children and missing elderly people, investigate bomb threats, and help with manhunts of wanted fugitives.
All of that takes a lot of training. The State Highway Patrol鈥檚 program has been in place since 2015, and they鈥檝e trained 43 dogs in that time: 31 for the patrol and 12 for other sheriff鈥檚 offices and police departments around the state. The new facility will mean less travel for people like White, who took Danny to Gallopolis in Southern Ohio to get ready for their work.
鈥淚t鈥檚 pretty intense, it鈥檚 10 weeks long. When we get the dogs they don鈥檛 know any of the narcotic odors, they don鈥檛 know any of the bite work,鈥� White says. 鈥淲e basically get the dogs from a vendor from overseas, and then we work, basically, doing the four narcotic odors. They train 鈥榚m on marijuana, methamphetamine, cocaine, heroin and the derivatives of those.鈥�
For a dual-purpose dog like Danny, the other half of training is spent on patrol work like apprehension, handler protection, and suspect tracking.
The first class of nine dogs starts class in the new facility this spring, with classrooms, officers, kennels for the K9s and dormitories for their human counterparts, plus a whole building dedicated for training scenarios. Dogs learn the ropes to work in eight different law enforcement agencies.
Payer thinks it鈥檒l make a difference.
鈥淲e deploy the dog and then we remove, say, 400 pounds of marijuana or 100 kilos of heroin off the鈥攖hat鈥檚 a lot of lives saved immediately, that you can almost measure,鈥� Payer says.
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