March 28, 2024

Creston’s K-9’s first year on the force

This week is National Police Week

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Creston Police Department’s K9-Unit has become more skilled over the last calendar year as Jax, a now-2-year old Belgian Malinois, has grown into his role as a young, but experienced member of the police force.

Jax is preparing for re-certification, said handler Shannon Arends, a third-party certification process that is not associated with Jax.

To prepare for re-certification, his trainings have kicked up in intensity over the last few weeks.

“We’ve been pushing pretty hard in his training,” said Arends. “I have been training with Taylor County, a deputy there and a deputy in Adams County. We get together and try to do some things a couple times a month and I have also been training with him throughout my shift.”

Through the re-certification process, it falls on Arends to be able to read Jax to make correct assessment of situations.

“My job is to be able to read the dog when he has a behavioral change,” said Arends. “Everybody looks at an alert as a dog sitting or scratching. Really, an alert starts before that.”

Arends likened the dog’s ability to be read to bird hunting dogs getting “birdy,” an excited response to scent that handlers can pick up. Each dog has a tell when arriving at the scent in question

“Pointer’s would point. A flushing dog would move in and flush the bird. In Jax’s particular case, he sits and stares when he has reached the host or concentrated area of odor,” said Arends.”

Jax’s drug work has been going along well, said Arends, and that he is working on tracking suspects.

“Right now we’re working on tracking, ... not sure whether we’ll be ready to certify on that this coming session,” said Arends. “... Tracking takes a little bit more time and is a little harder to get a dog to pick that up.”

The training process involved mimicking scenarios that would play out during a shift and incorporate distractions for Jax, seeing if he would react.

“When we’re deploying the dog, there’s all kinds of issues we face,” said Arends. “There’s literally millions, and our training sessions, we kind of set it up based on real-world (situations).”

Situations for training used have ranged from staged traffic stops to “sniffing out” a school, and have helped point out weak points in Jax’s ability to sniff out targets. Arends says it is the responsibility of the handlers to recognize deficiencies in the dogs’ work and to correct them before they get worse.

Arends says Jax’s deployment has been used as needed, and that the department has not used him sparingly or liberally. Overall, Jax has been successful in his work when put into action.

“Oh, absolutely,” said Arends when asked if Jax has a high success rate. “Before COVID-19, a lot of people were reading in the paper of the search warrants we obtained (because of him). ... A lot of the search warrants has been gained from the dogs’ interaction, helps with existing cases and helps build new cases. We haven’t had any issues, ... been very accurate.”

With re-certification now the next step for Jax, Arends has no worries on if he’ll remain being a major contributor to the force.

“Training has been going very well and I think certification will be a breeze for him,” said Arends. “He’s doing outstanding in that area.”

Home life

Since Jax has become a regular and integral part of Creston’s police force, his home life has not changed with Arends.

“A dog needs to be a dog,” said Arends. “I let him have that time at home where he knows that’s his time to relax and unwind. It’s his time off.”

Like many, the work sometimes spills into home life for Jax. Arends said he’s worked with Jax at home on tracking to prep for certification, but has not upped the intensity.

“I try not to do a whole lot of that at home, because it is important for him to unwind,” said Arends. “He’s a very personable dog, easy to get along with. ... He gets a long with my family and he’s really a good dog for the community as far as being approachable. He’s got a pretty good personality.”

For Arends, Jax is his third dog from the police force. He’s had a first-hand account in seeing the success of dogs with the Creston police department, and feels a K-9 Unit makes an impact anywhere.

“I absolutely think any dog in any community, whether it’s Creston or anywhere, has a huge impact on the drug beat,” said Arends. “It should. If the people that are committing these crimes are interested in avoiding us, then the dog makes that very hard on them and will without a doubt have an effect on them.”