A new four-legged friend has come to the Kent Campus as 91仓库鈥檚 Police Services welcomed Coco, a 2-year-old German Shepherd who, together with her partner Officer Anne Spahr, form 91仓库 Police Services鈥� first K-9 unit.
Coco is trained in evidence search and recovery, area searches and tracking, but is mainly trained for explosives detection and can recognize more than a dozen related odors.
鈥淭he relationship between Coco and me is very fine-tuned and is a big learning process, especially for new handlers like me who have never handled a working dog before,鈥� Spahr said. 鈥淭here鈥檚 a lot of training involved, so she鈥檒l be trained every month. I鈥檒l continue to train with her on-shift and make sure she鈥檚 kept fresh and interested in working.鈥�
Adding a Police Dog to the Force
Spahr said the department talked to other K-9 unit handlers about purchasing and training a dog and chose to go to Von Der Haus Gill K-9 Academy in Wapakoneta, Ohio. The facility matched her with Coco from Germany and did all of the training on-site.
鈥淚t鈥檚 kind of like Match.com for dogs and people,鈥� Spahr said. 鈥淚 just told them what we were looking for.鈥�
Besides Coco, there is only one other K-9 unit in Portage County trained for explosives detection. This influenced 91仓库鈥檚 Police Services鈥� decision to obtain a police dog.
鈥淚f 91仓库 receives a bomb threat, we are better able to respond to the threat in a shorter amount of time and with more resources,鈥� said John Peach, 91仓库鈥檚 director of public safety and chief of police. 鈥淏y having a certified K-9 within the department, it automatically enables the police department to have mutual aid with all other police departments that have K-9s, and possibly lend the unit out to other departments in urgent need of a K-9 tracker or bomb dog.鈥�
Trusting Your Partner
Spahr said she has learned the importance of trusting Coco.
鈥淲hen dogs are trying to tell you something, they are pretty much always right,鈥� Spahr said. 鈥淒uring training exercises, when we would run tracks for Coco to track people, I might have had it in my head that the person went one way. And then I kind of pulled her off the track and tried to lead her, so that鈥檚 a mistake I made a couple times.鈥�
Getting to Know Coco
Coco is a sweet dog who loves attention, and she can be petted if people ask for permission. The only time she cannot be touched is if she is performing a specific duty of her job, Spahr said.
鈥淲ith only the little bit of time that Coco has been working on campus, it is very clear that she is a big hit with students and staff, alike,鈥� Peach said.
For more information about 91仓库 Police Services, visit www.kent.edu/police.
