San Joaquin Sheriff's K-9 units train for drug detection at Ripon facility

Mar. 2—RIPON — For the last 30 years, the San Joaquin County Sheriff's Office K-9 Unit has responded to a variety of calls, ranging from suspect searches, assaults with deadly weapons, to residential and commercial burglaries.

But in the coming weeks, some of the agency's 12 K-9 teams will be ready to begin searching for contraband when called to certain incidents, thanks to training at a new facility in Ripon.

Top Dog Police K9 Training and Consulting, LLC, has been contracting with law enforcement agencies all over the state out of its Modesto location since 2012

But owner Ron Cloward, a former Modesto police officer, opened the Ripon location in December.

"This is something Sheriff (Pat) Withrow wanted to do with his patrol units — cross training," Cloward said. "In the past this was something that wasn't accepted in law enforcement. So this is a big step for San Joaquin County."

Classes at Top Dog Training are eight-week courses, with the first three weeks focused on contraband detection, and the last five on the streets.

Monday was the start of the third week of training for the current class, which included K-9 units from the Sheriff's Office and the Manteca Police Department.

Units from the Hayward and Vallejo police departments, the Tuolumne County Sheriff's Office, and State Parks were also in training.

Cloward said the dogs training — which are typically German Shepherds and Belgian Malinois — will be certified for drug detection on Thursday. Patrol will begin next week, and the dogs will be able to sniff out crystal meth, powder meth, cocaine and heroin.

Some dogs are even trained to find guns and ammunition, he said.

Because it is now legal in California, marijuana is no longer one of the drugs K-9 units are trained to locate, Cloward said, unless they are members of the probation department.

That's because those on parole or probation are not allowed to have any drugs, including marijuana, in their possession. Some patrol dogs at state borders might be trained to sniff it out as well, because marijuana is also not supposed to be transported across state lines.

While Monday's demonstrations showcased dogs in action, searching parked vehicles or furnished rooms, training for drug detection starts with a small box with a hole on top.

"It's loaded with odors, and we present that box to the dog," Cloward said. "When the dog sniffs it and we get a response out of him, then we pop the ball out of it. We do that several times, and then we throw another box out. Now what they do is differentiate between the box that has the odor in it and the box that doesn't, then they get their reward. Before you know it, on day two these dogs are already finding drugs on their own. So we can be done relatively quickly."

Deputies and their dogs train four days a week, 10 hours a day, with three days off. Cloward said the animals will most likely be exhausted by the end of the four days, as everything they do is scent work, which takes a lot of energy from a dog.

While the exercises may be rigorous on a dog's olfactory system, Cloward said they have fun learning a new skill that will keep the streets safe and free of harmful drugs. Each time they locate contraband — either in the box, the training rooms or parked vehicles — they'll receive a ball or treat as a reward.

"The dogs love the training," Deputy Sandra Mendez, the Sheriff's Office spokeswoman, said. "To them, this is play time. Any time you see a K-9 come out to work, that is play time. Their work time is play time. So when they're at home and just chilling, they're a pet."

Cloward said the Modesto Police Department trained its own K-9 units in drug detection, but he began to see a need for outside training at other agencies when he retired.

"One of the biggest things (training) does is speeds up the amount of time it might take to find something," Cloward said. "Because a dog is going to find it in a quicker time than if a police officer or deputy sheriff had to search a vehicle. Plus, a lot of the times a dog can just take a sniff of the exterior of a car and tell you if there are narcotics in that car."

Deputy Sandra Mendez, spokeswoman for the Sheriff's Office, said this new training will make the agency more efficient when combating illegal drugs in the county.

"This will make our community safer, because we'll be able to detect drugs more easily," she said. "Every time they do a traffic stop, instead of just going out and using the dog for apprehension, they could use it to do actual drug searches. It makes life a little bit easier. Instead of having to find the drugs on their own, not just visually, but by smell and scent they have a dog do it for them."

Mendez and Cloward both said the public should be aware that while K-9 units are trained to sniff out contraband or detain potentially violent subjects, they are not dangerous.

"When you see a K-9 out there, go and talk to them, ask them questions," Mendez said. "The dogs aren't just there to look at as if they're scary. They're actually there to protect us and help us as a community."

Cloward added that any K-9 that is vicious toward citizens would not be part of a unit for long.

"People think they're very vicious, but I will tell you that I don't want anything to do with a dog that I can't walk into a classroom full of kids with," he said. "In the age where we are in with regard to police work, the dog needs to be social, it needs to be friendly, but yet he also needs to be able to do his job."

For more information about Top Dog Training and Consulting, visit www.topdogpolicek9.com.