SPARTA, Mich. — The training these K-9s receive range from assisting in investigations, sniffing out narcotics or explosives, and saving the lives of their handlers, but they are also companions of the first responders they work alongside.
At Grand Rapids K9 in Sparta, Jason Arnold has been professionally dog training since 2015.
"Most agencies are going to send them to a training facility that can incorporate dog and handler. And usually it's with former law enforcement that are doing these types of trainings," said Arnold.
He explains that capable dogs will begin an eight-to-12-week program, beginning with fundamentals, and then partnering them with an officer.
"What you're going to do is you're going to take these drives the dog naturally has, and you're going to essentially channel them into doing certain tasks, for example, you're going to use a ball as motivation for narcotics detection. So really, the dogs not looking for narcotics, the dog is looking for doing the task that's going to earn them the ball. In this case, it just happens to be that they're finding that odor, that target odor."
He says there are two kinds of dogs an agency uses. Single purpose K9s typically work as patrol dogs, sniffing for narcotics or explosives.
"A dual purpose canine is going to be a dog that can do three things: track human scent, find narcotics, or bombs, and bite on command, if needed to assist the officer."
After work hours, the K9s can also integrate into their handlers home, play with their children, and be a companion, but as they protect and serve, safety is not always guaranteed, and some K9s retire early.
"Generally speaking, how it goes is the officer gets first pick as to if they want to keep that animal...so if a department offers the dog to the officer, or handler, and they either can't take them, don't want them for whatever reason, there is the Warrior Dog Foundation, which is a nonprofit that does take in working dogs and places them into homes."
Regardless of their job, these K9s are still man's best friend.
"The dog really is watching their back at all times as a patrol dog. The level of trust you have to have is basically life and death."
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