Welcome to the force

Creston Police Department has a new deputy among its ranks.

Jax, an 18-month-old Belgian Malinois, has been trained in narcotics and will continue training in tracking this spring .

He and his handler, Creston Patrol Officer Shannon Arends, completed two weeks of training at Code 2 K9 Services in Omaha, Nebraska, which they started Feb. 4.

When it comes to training, Arends said Jax is excelling.

“He took to narcotic work very well,” he said. “Right now, he’s a young dog and it’s just a matter for me to get him used to everything before we take him out.”

Despite his young age, Jax is certified and able to conduct narcotic work. Currently, he is working on a diversification of odors.

“Basically, increasing the amount of odors around and decreasing it,” said Arends. “A dog has an internal kind of a trip, that when they smell the odor, it takes a certain amount to trigger a response. Well, we try to work that down so that we can work it to smaller amounts such as trace odor.”

Such training will allow Jax to enter a room with a pungent odor and work through a variety of smells to the source. Additionally, Jax will be able to detect transfer odor, such as odor left on a door handle after handling a bag containing drugs.

Jax is Arends’ third K9 in his 15 years of law enforcement. Prior to working for Creston Police Department, which he started six years ago, Arends was a deputy sheriff in Ringgold County, where he said the K9s were an invaluable tool for the department.

“Right now, more than ever, a K9 is important,” said Arends. “In any kind of drug interdiction or any kind of detection work, people are really skilled at hiding it. They can hide it in places that we can’t find that the dog can. The dog’s sense of smell is about 60 times greater than ours, so the ability to locate things where we wouldn’t be able to look or unable to find it, it’s invaluable.”

Arends said due to recent case law there have been changes in interdiction. During traffic stops and interdicting drug trafficking on highways, K9s are crucial as a “triggered” K9 during a traffic stop gives law enforcement probable cause and permits them to conduct a search of a vehicle.

Future spring training for Jax includes tracking, which allows him to sniff out individuals who flee from law enforcement, and evidence training, which would enable Jax the ability to go back and find evidence thrown from vehicles. Arends said depending on Jax’s progress, he may be trained in apprehension. Arends said he and Jax will also participate in multi-agency training up to two times a month.

Arends said Jax likes to play tug, which is a used to help build his drive, but when he’s on duty, Jax is all business. Jax has a few toys he responds to that are used as training aids.

“In the real world, if we use him on a vehicle, we don’t reward him with [a toy],” said Arends. “Basically, the reward is just praise when we’re bringing him back to the car.”

Not only are Arends and Jax partners, but Arends is Jax’s full-time caretaker.

“He’ll stay with me 24/7. It will be my job to take care of him,” said Arends. “I’ll have to take him to get any vet work done, or anything like that. If I’m gone on vacation, he’ll be boarded at a vet. Obviously, he’ll ride with me. Anytime I’m on duty, the dog will be with me.”

Arends said it’s a challenging aspect of his job.

I think a lot of people get into the K9 business not really understanding how much work it is. It’s a tremendous amount of work ... the dog maintenance training. We’ll go for certification yearly,” he said.

To keep Jax sharp and to build his skills, Arends said he has to work with Jax daily.

“It’s just like anything else, the more you work with him, the better they get. It’s my goal to work with him as much as possible,” said Arends. “The better he is, the more difficult we can make it for the people doing drugs in the community.”

Arends is looking forward to working with his new partner and will have Jax out in the community starting next week to get him socialized and begin traffic stop training. In the future, Arends and Jax will do demos for the community.

“I like to do that so the community can see what they paid for and see him at work,” he said.