May 11, 2009 6:47 am US/Eastern
Dogs Learn The Ropes At New K9 Training Center
ANNAPOLIS, Md. (AP) ―
During a recent training exercise for police dogs, a "suspect" got into a small, makeshift shed deep in a wood line that backs to Veterans Highway in Millersville. The man sat out of view, quietly, in a dark corner.
Although the shed seemed to be the ideal spot for the man to hide from Anne Arundel County Police, who were going through the brush looking for him, the hideout was found by Jake, a 1-year-old Belgian Malinois, a police dog in training. The Belgian Malinois looks like a German shepherd.
Quickly, Jake sensed the "suspect's" presence and snarled, letting his handler, Cpl. Brian Fleig, know it.
"The biggest, baddest criminal is more willing to comply" when confronted with a police dog, said Cpl. Mike Edmondson, handler of Chesney, a 3-year-old Belgian Malinois.
Jake and Chesney are two of the four new canine crime fighters in the county Police Department. The roster that also includes Lucian, a 1-year-old German shepherd, and Cyrus, a 1-year-old black Labrador retriever.
The dogs have joined the force, one by one, in the past few months. They are learning the ropes -- and barrels and ramps -- at the department's new $775,000 K9 training facility at 8321 Grover Road, near county police headquarters.
The facility opened without fanfare in September. It is a state-of-the-art K9 training center, according Lt. Frederick Plitt, commander of the Special Operations Section.
The small brick building behind police headquarters that had served as the K9 facility since 1960 was no longer big enough to house and train the department's 14 dogs.
The new facility features eight indoor-outdoor kennels with heated floors, a bathtub to wash off muddy paws, and a fenced-in training course with ramps, tubes, jumps, tires and mailboxes. It has the door of a police car so the dogs can practice jumping in and out of a patrol car window.
The dogs live with their handlers, but may stay at one of the facility's kennels when the officer is out of town.
The department's old ramps were put in the woods lining the new training facility, Edmondson said. A second wooded area that ends at a fence near Interstate 97 is set up with trails and five wooden sheds to serve as hiding spots for "suspects" and other things during training.
The dogs must undergo at least 16 weeks of training, Fleig said. Then they work, sniffing out narcotics or explosives and working alongside officers on patrol.
The handlers work with the dogs seven hours a day. Cyrus recently finished training, while Chesney and Lucian had about a month left until they join the force. Jake, the latest recruit, had several weeks to go.
"Jake is doing fantastic -- his social skills are good, his patrol work is good and he just turned 1 year (on Valentine's Day)," Fleig said. "He had a little injury, a sore pad (on his paw), so I believe we started in mid-January. He's had to pick it up a little. Once he's certified, then we'll allow him to go onto the streets and I think he'll do great."
Jake was assigned to work with Fleig after the death of Fleig's police dog, Kidd, in November.
He said Jake, Cyrus, Lucian and Chesney will be good members on an already strong K9 team. But the dogs have their work cut out for them.
They support police officers, helping them with crowd control, bank robberies, suspicious packages, drug sniffing, finding missing people and chasing suspects, Fleig said.
Like other handlers in the department, Fleig is honored to have a K9 partner.
"It's the best job in the agency," he said.
(© 2009 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)
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