Police Youth Academy Kids Meet the K9s

A group of 11 and 12 year olds taking part in Holmdel's Police Youth Academy summer program watched officers and their K-9 partners interact on Tuesday, August 23, at Bayonet Farm. The officers gave the kids a demonstration of the incredible loyalty, sensory ability, and physical fitness of four German Shepherds in a back field used to train police dogs from all across the state.

Training for K-9s (a police term meaning canines) is a rigorous six month process during which the dogs are taught how to track human scents, find contraband, follow both verbal and silent physical commands, and apprehend suspects. Dogs with a specialty skill such as finding bombs or drugs are imprinted with the material's scent at a young age. They are given rolled-up towels saturated with the scent of gunpowder or marijuana, for example, and these towels are used as fetch toys, so they learn to associate finding these materials with fun and play. During training and out in the field, the K-9s are given praise and sometimes a chew toy when they accomplish a task. The positive feedback makes their work into play, and their tails wag the entire time.

Training is both intensive and fun for the dogs' human handlers too. One officer is matched with one dog, and they go through much of the 400 hours of training together. To reinforce a strong pair bond between a K-9 and his handler, the dogs go home with the officers at the end of the day and become part of their families. 

"Imagine getting paid to play with your dog? That's pretty cool, right? Don't tell the chief!" Detective Edward Martinez told the kids.

Besides catching criminals and finding dangerous substances, police dogs are used to find runaways or people who become lost. The dogs are given an article of clothing with the individual's scent so they know who to find, and then shown a toy so they know the search is friendly and not a forceful apprehension of a suspect. Both Officers Joseph Van Pelt and William Bernard have won awards for working with their K-9s to find people with Alzheimers who became confused and wandered away from home. 

Officer Van Pelt's dog Buddy demonstrated his sniffing skills by finding a bag of marijuana hidden behind a car's license plate and C-4 explosives in an airtight case in the trunk. Then when the dog wasn't looking, a kid threw a pocketknife into a large field of high grass, and Buddy found it within three minutes. Then, a girl hid inside one of four small wooden sheds in the field. A patrol specialist K-9 named Dioge quickly sniffed all of them, then sat down next to the one with the girl in it indicating to his handler that he found a person. Another dog named Harley then demonstrated the German Shepherd breed's extraordinary agility by climbing up steep and thin ramps simulating a fire escape, leaping over four foot high obstacles, and army-crawling under fences. At the end of the demonstration, the children lined up to pet the dogs, some hesitating a bit before petting the 110-pound K-9 units, who enjoyed the attention.