Police K-9 Officer

What animal lover hasn't daydreamed about ditching their desk job and applying for a job at the zoo? Or at a doggy daycare? Or tracking gorillas in Africa? We sure have, but since most of us may never actually get to work with the animals we love, we thought we'd introduce you to a few people who do.

Name: Ricky Valenzuela
Age: 28
Job: Police K-9 Officer, Mountain View Police Department

How long have you been a police K-9 officer?
Two years. Before that, I was a regular patrol officer.

Please describe what you do.
I'm basically a patrol officer and I have the K-9 dog, Ugo (pronounced "you go") with me as a tool.

As a tool to do what?
Our canines are dual purpose, so that means they are patrol and narcotics detection dogs. The dogs are used for finding people and evidence, for tracking suspects, missing people, and people who may be suicidal. Essentially, the dogs are a locating tool for finding people or drugs.

What is your job like?
If there is a "hot" call or a crime in-progress call, as a K-9 officer, we step up and handle it. We set up a perimeter and we go from there looking for the suspect.

How do you become a K-9 officer?
Most places, you have to be selected into the unit. You have to prove yourself as a patrol officer, work well without a lot of supervision. Also, before I got a K-9 partner, I participated in our department's weekly trainings. I'd be out there with the bite suit on, hiding in trees and bushes taking bites. You actually learn a lot hiding from the dogs. You see the dogs work firsthand -- noses and ears perked up. You see them hit a scent cone and know the odor is coming off of you.

What made you want to be a K-9 officer?
I went to the trainings a couple of times and saw the dogs work. Also, the K-9 officer steps up and handles the hot calls and takes over things. Everyone looks to him to take charge, and that's what I wanted to do. There's nothing like going [on a call] and the victim, witness, or cop says, "This guy went this way, go find him" and I go find them with the dog.

What kind of hours do you and Ugo work?
Most of the crimes we're involved with occur at night, so I work a graveyard shift from eight at night until six in the morning.

Are you in your car patrolling?
Yeah, I'm a regular patrol officer, and when there's a call for a K-9 dog, then I search with the dog. Otherwise, I'm out there doing the regular calls for service -- going to domestic violence calls, accidents...

Is it just you and your dog that patrols?
I'm in the car by myself with the dog. But for most calls we go to, there are other officers there. I never search alone. Depending on the crime, it could be one person with me, or three.

How does Ugo let you know he's found someone?
Our dogs are "find and bark." So when they find someone, they bark at 'em. They're trained to bark, bark, bark.

What if the suspect tries to run away?
If the suspect tries to run away or move, the dog will apprehend him. They're trained to bite. Not to chew, but just to grab on and hold. If people try to run away, the dog will usually bite them on the leg or arm. It makes it harder for you to run away with an eighty-pound dog on your back. It's up to the suspect whether there will be an apprehension.


How often do you train the K-9 dogs?
We train fours a week for a total of sixteen hours a month.

What do you do in the trainings?
Every week is different, but each training we do obedience because that is the foundation for a good K9 team. Because there is only so much we can get done in four hours we try to focus on a few training objectives each week. For instance one week we may focus on tracking, evidence and apprehension work, and the next week we may do open area searches and building searches. Maybe one week we would just train on narcotics.

So you different trainings each week?
We try to mix up the training as much as we can so we don't get lazy as handlers and the dog doesn't get in a repetitive training mode. So we always try to train at different locations and try new training scenarios. The weekly training is not just for the K9 it is also for the handler.

What about in real life, how do the dogs track?
When you're a suspect hiding from the cops or running, you're pumping out a lot of adrenaline and the scent is just coming off you like potpourri. They call it "fear scent," which the dogs can smell.

What kind of dogs does your police department work with?
We have three German Shepherds. They're all males. Right now, all our dogs are between six and nine years old. I got Ugo when he was four (he's six now). He was in Europe being a stud dog. Most dogs are trained in Europe. Vendors in the States go over and pick out the dogs and come back and show the dogs to police departments here.

When do the police dogs retire?
They retire when due to age or medical issues they are unable to perform on the streets anymore. There is no set age cutoff because every dog is different. I have seen some work till 12 years and others only a few years after being on the street. Probably the average age of retirement of a police dog is eight years.

Are you the only person who works with your dog?
Yes. The city owns the dog because it's basically property, but Ugo lives with me. My department and City pay for his dog food and all of Ugo's medical expenses related to trips to the vet for checkups, emergencies and meds, but once he retires he'll live with me as a pet.

What happens after you get paired with your dog?
The canine handler and the dog go to a month-long patrol class. We learn obedience, apprehension work, searching, tracking. We also do article searches; when someone throws out a knife or a gun into the bushes, we train on how to recover that.

How does a dog know how to find a gun or a knife that's been thrown away?
The dogs are trained to find the scent of human odor or scent that is on the item.

When Ugo tracks, is he off leash?
When he tracks, he's on a long line, about 15 or 30 feet, because we're in an urban area and there's people everywhere. But for a suspect search in a confined area where you know there's no one in that area, but the suspect, Ugo will be off-leash.

What's Ugo's personality like?
Really friendly. He'll come up to you and knock you over because he'll throw his side into you to be petted.

Do you get paid for the time that you take care of him in your off hours?
Yeah, basically, it's required by the FLSA [Fair Labor Standards Act]. We get paid a half-hour a day. Each day, seven days a week, I get a half-hour. That's for taking care of the dog: taking him to the vet, picking up his poo, feeding him, grooming him.

What is a misperception people have about K-9 police work?
That [police dogs] are attack dogs and they're there to chew on people. That's just not true. We don't apprehend everyone running away; it has to be a serious felony and the suspect has to be posing an active danger. I use my dog as a locating tool and once Ugo finds a suspect and barks, then I fall back and let the officers take control of the suspect.

Did working with an animal appeal to you?
Oh yeah, because I love animals and always had dogs growing up. There's nothing like having a bond with your dog, especially a German Shepherd. As much time as we spend together, there's nothing like going to work and coming home and playing. He's my buddy.

You guys play when you come home from work?
Usually when we get home from work, he's pooped out and he just eats and sleeps. But [on days off] we'll go run at the park. He goes on vacations with my family. He'll go swimming. He's just a normal dog when he's not working. He knows when he's working and he knows when he's not.

What about when it's time to go to work?
When we're at home and it's time to go to work, he gets all excited and he'll jump up. He loves coming to work.

Do you have children that he's around?
No. It's just me and my wife and the cats. He doesn't get along with the cats, though, so they stay separated.

Tags: k-9, mountain view police department, police dog, ricky valenzuela