Jackson’s K-9s Train For Certification
Kyra, a 7-year-old German Shepherd, runs circles around six white wooden boxes in a field, sniffing each as she goes. On the last box, she stops, circles, and sniffs again.
At Kyra’s bark, her handler, Sgt. Brandon Moss, calls her back.
“Suspect come out,” Moss yells.
Officer Jeremy Stines steps out of the box Kyra indicated. When Kyra is released from her leash, she latches on to the arm of Stines’ “bite suit,” a covering Stines wears over his arm to protect from a K-9’s bite during training exercises.
Jackson Police Department’s K-9 units are training for their annual certification test next week. The test determines how well the dogs are trained for field work — agility and “patrol functions,” or the dogs’ ability to search for suspects and retrieve items individuals have dropped.
Jackson Police Department’s K9 Unit handlers work with their dogs Kyra, Ozzy, and Pax to prepare for their annual certification.
“The dogs we’ve got now are dual-purpose trained, which means they’re trained to find a certain scent or odor,” Moss said. “Patrol functions are where they’re training to track and apprehend suspects or people at large.”
For Pax, Stines’ 2-year-old German Shepherd, and Ozzy, Officer Devin Bray’s 2-year-old German Shepherd, next week’s training will be their first with the Jackson Police Department.
Pax and Ozzy have been with the Jackson Police Department for roughly a year, and both are trained in narcotics, while Kyra is trained in explosives, Moss said. The dogs are all trained to search for suspects.
“Basically, when they start with the police department, they’re trained to pass all the different aspects of the certification. They’ve already completed all these things in training,” Moss said.
The dogs are trained to jump fence-sized hurdles, through window openings, run up stairs and do a “low crawl.”
“The dogs have to pass an agility course,” Moss said. “The agility course is what they would encounter in their day-to-day work on the street.”
When the dogs complete each section of the course, they are given a toy to play with. After Pax’s run through the obstacle course, Stines throws a ball attached to a string across the field for Pax to chase.
“It’s really just a game for them,” Moss said. “They do it to make themselves happy. They do it to make us happy.”
For certification, the dogs have to complete the search and agility tests for judges to determine if they are able to perform similar tasks daily.
Special thanks to KENNETH CUMMINGS and MARANDA FARIS/The Jackson Sun
German Shepherds are very active dogs and described in breed standards as self-assured. The breed is marked by a willingness to learn and do things. They are curious, making them excellent guard dogs and suitable for detection. They can become over-protective of their family and territory, especially if not socialized correctly. They are not inclined to become immediate friends with strangers, another guard dog quality. German Shepherds are highly intelligent and obedient.
German Shepherds are a popular selection for use as working dogs. They are especially well known for their police work, being used for tracking criminals, patrolling troubled areas and detection and holding of suspects.
The German Shepherd is one of the most widely used breeds in a wide variety of scent-work roles. These include search and rescue, cadaver searching, narcotics detection, explosives detection, accelerant detection and mine detection dog, among others. They are suited for these lines of work because of their keen sense of smell and their ability to work regardless of distractions.
One common ailment of German Shepherds is hip and elbow dysplasia which may lead to the dog experiencing pain in later life and may cause arthritis. The Orthopedic Foundation for Animals found that 19.1% of German Shepherd are affected by hip dysplasia. According to a recent survey in the UK, the median life span of German Shepherds is 10.95 years, which is normal for a dog of their size.
