Monmouth County police departments training new K9 officers

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on November 03, 2013 at 10:20 PM, updated November 03, 2013 at 10:21 PM


Whether it’s tracking a lost person, sniffing out drugs or apprehending a suspect, police officers count on canines to assist them.

The dogs seen wearing a badge and vest aren’t any household pet, but rather ones that have been selected, tested and trained – over and over again.

The Wall Township Police Department established a K9 Unit in 1981 and with the exception of a few years, consistently staffed at least one, but as many as four dogs, according to Patrolman Ed Lister.

Lister, whose K9 Hades joined the department in 2005 and is retiring, is a trainer apprentice for scent and patrol training certification while also putting his second K9, Bowski, through the course.

Several small police departments stopped hiring K9’s in 2009-2010 because of budget cuts and lost the dogs through attrition, Lister said, but have since started rehiring because they needed the resources.

In addition to Wall Township, who will have three dogs by the end of the class, Avon, Spring Lake and Point Pleasant Beach have dogs training to join their respective departments when the course is completed.

The 13-member K9 class also has dogs from the Ocean County Sheriff’s Office and the Department of Corrections.

The currently 23-week course includes tracking, agility, obedience, human scent work, drug sniffing and apprehension training, Lister said.

Under the command of Head Trainer Myron Kelley, of the Department of Corrections who is also going through the course to become a supervisor trainer, the dogs are taught how to search everything from swamps and marshes to buildings and open fields. They also learn how to climb stairs, walk across small platforms, crawl under tight spaces and listen to commands from their handler.

K9 train in Wall TownshipHandlers hold their K9 partners during a training in Wall Township. 

“We train the dogs so that they’re obedient to walk at our sides at all times, whether they’re on a lead, off a lead, gradually, through training,” Lister said.

In order to pass the training, the dogs not only have to be able to go wherever people can go, but also have to be able to stay in a position while their handler walks away and then change their position through either a voice or hand motion, Lister said. The behavior is rewarded with toys.

“It builds a foundation for all the other stuff that we do,” Lister said.

Lister pointed to some of Hades’ accomplishments when describing how the K9’s are beneficial. His dog found a woman who had stabbed someone hiding with a knife approximately 20 feet from police. When the dog found her, she immediately surrendered. In another incident, Hades found a weapon that was lost in a motor vehicle crash that police believe was used in a drive by, and climbed into an attic to find a fleeing suspect that crashed a car into a house.

The K9’s are trained not only to bite on command, but also protect their handler.

“I can tell the dog to stay somewhere, go out and search an arrested person, and the dogs going to either stay or respond to hostility without me saying a word,” Lister said. “They know the difference between I’m just doing a pat down or I’m being assaulted and I need their assistance.”

However, there are strict Attorney General guidelines in order for a dog to apprehend a suspect, Lister said.

“They only bite on command,” Lister said. “When given the command, they bite, they hold on in one specific spot, and they don’t release until given the command to release. When given the command to release though, they have to let go immediately.”

The dogs also must be able to be recalled if the command to bite is given and the situation changes, Lister said. There are also certain situations, spelled out in the guidelines, which allow for a second bite.

“A lot of time is spent on getting the proper bite work down,” Lister said.

The dogs are also trained to smell for several types of narcotics, including marijuana, heroin, cocaine, crack cocaine and ecstasy, as well as for human scent.

Lister said the dogs have 225 million receptors in their noses, compared to a human’s 5 million, allowing them to smell skin rafts that are constantly coming off people and they can differentiate between grass that has been walked on or not.

Typically the K9’s are German Shepherds or Belgian Malinois, but there were other breeds in the class, including a Donovan Pinscher and Black Russian Terrier. Also, the dog’s gender does not matter, Lister said.

Once the course is completed, Lister said the dogs have to go through one patrol and one scent training each month, and are re-evaluated twice a year.