New police dog trains for cop duty

Patrolman Rocky Klein tests Eros's obidience during K-9 training on the grounds of the Department of Transportation Tuesday July, 22. The 2-year-old german shepard is the newest dog to be trained for the McKinley County Sheriff's department. [photo by Cable Hoover / Independent]

By Philip Stake
Staff writer

GALLUP — Eros is a dog — an ordinary 2-year-old German shepherd — who proved Tuesday it has the mettle to be a cop. He’ll sit and usually stay when he’s told. He doesn’t pick fights with his thoroughly trained Belgian Malinois colleague anymore. His instincts are good, and he obeys.
Sgt. John Trevor-Smith, head of the county’s canine unit, held basic training for Eros on Tuesday to ensure his readiness for the next step in his education: six weeks, or 300 hours, of patrol and drug-detection school in Albuquerque. Upon successful completion, Eros will become the department’s fifth canine officer, joining Spike, Doc, Frajiar, and Voy.

The dogs’ human counterparts hold canine training each week to keep them sharp for duty. They run dope-sniffing, evidence-searching, building-searching, area-searching and human decoy exercises at a different location each week. This week’s training at the highway department building on Hasler Valley Road doubled as the final obedience test for Eros before he goes to school.

“No matter where the dog is, even if its master is out of sight, it listens, it doesn’t freethink,” explained Trevor-Smith. “The only time it gets to freethink is during a search, based on odor.”

To illustrate, he slips over his arm a thick jute sleeve. He explodes a minuscule amount of gunpowder to put the scent in the air and takes on the role of a villain. Patrolman Chris Escamilla gives the command and his canine partner, Doc, a 4-year-old German shepherd, lights out after Trevor-Smith with an eye-full of business. Moments before Doc reaches his target, Escamilla gives one shout and the dog halts abruptly and circles back, eyes lingering on the would-be target.

“This dog has already been to school,” Trevor-Smith says, highlighting the difference between a police dog and merely an obedient one.

If police are searching for a suspect in a field, and the suspect stands out to surrender, there is no need for the dog to apprehend him or her, which is why obedience is of the utmost importance, Trevor-Smith said. But finding suspects is only one aspect of canine crime work.

“Everyone is under the impression that because the dogs bite the only thing they do is hunt people,” Trevor-Smith said.
In fact, the dogs search for evidence, too. They can sniff a mountainside and find a gun tossed from the window of a moving car. When they find it, they lay down so as not to tamper with evidence. Then Crime Scene Investigators take over.

Patrol dogs like Doc accompany officers during traffic stops to sniff for drugs. And they are used to track missing persons based on ground disturbance and human odor.
Sgt. Wayne Robertson of the county’s narcotics division, whose 7-year-old German shepherd, Frajiar, recently underwent an experimental surgery to repair its knees, said training is often more grueling for the animals than actual duty.

“If you train hard, you can deploy easy,” Sgt. Trevor-Smith said.