Deputy Chris Majeski and Otis train at the Washington County Fairgrounds March 18.
Jonathan Young
Stillwater Gazette
Deputy Chris Majeski gave a command, and police-dog-in-training Otis sprang into action at the Washington County Fairgrounds March 18. With a sudden burst of power, the 1-year-old Belgian Malinois leapt the wooden barrier in front of him.
As Majeski ran alongside holding his leash, Otis proceeded to clear the next two hurdles, one at a time, but he “begged off” the last hurdle. He had to go back to the beginning and try again — this time, Otis cleared all four and was rewarded with a toy and praise.
“Good boy,” Majeski said.
The Washington County Sheriff’s office recently imported Otis from Slovakia. He’s been training since March 6, along with two other Belgian Malinois — Beck and Akicita.
Akacita is being trained with Officer Ole Mark for the Prairie Island Indian Community’s police department. Otis will replace a Washington County K-9 that retired. The 2-and-a-half-year-old Beck is being retrained with Washington County Deputy Steve Bell, after Beck’s former partner, Ty Jacobson, was promoted to sergeant.
Jacobson, a certified United States Police Canine Association instructor, oversees the training.
“We’re pushing the dogs pretty hard, but it’s all fun for them,” Jacobson said. “We’re shaping their behaviors through positive reinforcement.”
That contrasts with older methods that relied more on dominance.
“You don’t get as quality of a dog when you train with those older methods,” Jacobson said.
Jacobson’s current class will graduate in June.
“Essentially we take an untrained dog, and we make them ready to work the street as a police dog in three months,” Jacobson said.
In addition to the hurdles, the dogs had to face other obstacles March 18, such as a low tunnel that forced them to crawl, and a tall, skinny catwalk that the younger dogs were obviously nervous to walk on — deputies had to prevent them from jumping down and had to coax them to stand up.
In addition to the agility work, the dogs receive training in obedience, recognizing human odors, searching buildings, tracking suspects, sniffing for drugs, biting in a controlled manner and more. It’s also important for the dogs and their handlers to build a relationship and work together well.
The county has been training its own K-9 units since 2008, which puts them in a small group of law enforcement agencies that offer training in the metro.
Jacobson said in-house training means classes are smaller, and there’s more one-on-one time. It also allows the handlers to stay home, which means they can train four hours a day and patrol four hours.
“If we have to send them to an outside school they’re gone for three months completely,” Jacobson said. Plus, the dogs would need a month of outside narcotics training when they returned, but the county can do all its own training in three months.
In-house training also lets the county select animals that meet its needs.
“When we do it ourselves, we have the ability to choose a dog for ourselves and choose a dog for our agency, how we see fit,” Jacobson said. Departments that go elsewhere for training are often simply assigned a dog.
Jacobson chooses all the animals the sheriff’s office purchases. If they’re being imported, he watches videos to evaluate their behavior before making a decision.
“What I’m looking for is a specific type of behavior and specific drives,” he said.
Dogs can cost anywhere from $5,000 to $8,500 each, depending on the quality and the seller, Jacobson said. But the sheriff’s office believes the expense is worth it.
“These dogs are phenomenal,” Jacobson said. “They do so much for us.”
In addition to work like tracking and drug sniffing, dogs help protect human lives by going into potentially dangerous situations ahead of deputies.
“The dogs are a great partner to have,” Jacobson said.