K-9 handler Billy Atwell stands with his new dog Kona after running him through an agility course at the Chattanooga Police Department firing range early Wednesday morning.CANINE SQUADThe Chattanooga Police Department currently has eight dogs in its K-9 unit. They are usually already named when the officers pick them out, but if the handlers name the animals, they like to stick with quick, simple names, Sgt. Tommy Meeks said.• Belgian Malinois — Kona, Duco, Chico, Wren, Kilo, Xander* (narcotics and patrol)• Dutch Shepherd — Khan (bomb search and patrol)• German Shepherd — Nico* (narcotics and patrol)• Golden retriever — Red (narcotics search, highway intervention)• Black Labrador — Sammy (search and rescue, narcotics)*Retiring in JanuarySource: Chattanooga Police Department
The Chattanooga Police Department’s two newest officers will be prized for their keen sense of smell and sharp teeth. They will be paid with praise and small toys made from PVC pipe.
“That’s their paycheck,” the department’s K-9 Unit head trainer Officer, Barry Vradenburgh, says as he watches one of the department’s new dogs, Kona, jump hurdles in the rain. At the end of the work, he will reward the dog with one of the toys.
Kona and Duco are the K-9 Unit’s two new police dogs, still in the middle of their 15-week training. Besides agility training with the hurdles, the dogs are learning how to sniff out a wide variety of drugs, track a suspect and take that suspect down upon command.
“To them it’s all a game,” said K-9 Officer Zach Moody, who is going to be the handler for Duco. “They live for this.”