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When Auburn Police Sgt. and K9 program supervisor James Perry and his canine partner Ikia are working, Perry’s thoughts occasionally return to his 2003 deployment with the Alabama National Guard in Iraq. It was there he saw firsthand the havoc that IEDs (improvised explosive devices) cause, as well as how military dogs, like his 8-year-old crossbred Labrador retriever/German wire-haired pointer, help prevent tragedy and make soldiers and civilians safer.
Today, keeping people safe is the mission of Perry and other handlers in the city of Auburn Police Division (APD) K9 program. It is also the primary goal of the Auburn University College of Veterinary Medicine’s Canine Performance Sciences (CPS) program, which has led to the two programs forming a close and cooperative relationship. The APD has four dogs bred at CPS to become detection dogs, or so-called Auburn Dogs – Ikia, Ginger, Underdog and Blair. Three are trained in explosives and firearms detection and one to locate narcotics.
“Auburn’s CPS program breeds dogs specifically for performing detection work and is the longest continuously running institutional detection-dog breeding program in the nation,” said Pamela Haney, manager of CPS performance research and development. “From the time they are 3 days old, our puppies are engaged in age-appropriate protocols to prepare them for detection tasks. By the age of 12 months, the dogs have had several evaluations assessing their potential to be successfully trained as detection canines. We focus on preparing dogs that will be placed with operational explosives detection programs, particularly for the specialty of person-borne explosives detection.
“Some dogs may be retained by the program for detection-related research across myriad other target materials, including improvised/homemade explosives, endangered and invasive species ecological detection and biological/restricted hazardous agents,” she said. “One or two of the highest-performing dogs from successful litters are retained for breeding, and other dogs are retained with particular characteristics conducive to needed special detection research, development and other applications.”
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<p>” data-medium-file=”https://i2.wp.com/alabamanewscenter.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/51700612990_b0b8ca2996_k.jpg?fit=451%2C300&ssl=1″ data-large-file=”https://i2.wp.com/alabamanewscenter.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/51700612990_b0b8ca2996_k.jpg?fit=900%2C599&ssl=1″ loading=”lazy” class=” wp-image-294546″ src=”https://i2.wp.com/alabamanewscenter.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/51700612990_b0b8ca2996_k.jpg?resize=576%2C383&ssl=1″ alt=”” width=”576″ height=”383″ srcset=”https://i2.wp.com/alabamanewscenter.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/51700612990_b0b8ca2996_k.jpg?w=1200&ssl=1 1200w, https://i2.wp.com/alabamanewscenter.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/51700612990_b0b8ca2996_k.jpg?resize=451%2C300&ssl=1 451w, https://i2.wp.com/alabamanewscenter.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/51700612990_b0b8ca2996_k.jpg?resize=1024%2C682&ssl=1 1024w, https://i2.wp.com/alabamanewscenter.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/51700612990_b0b8ca2996_k.jpg?resize=768%2C511&ssl=1 768w, https://i2.wp.com/alabamanewscenter.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/51700612990_b0b8ca2996_k.jpg?resize=300%2C200&ssl=1 300w” sizes=”(max-width: 576px) 100vw, 576px” data-recalc-dims=”1″/>Auburn Police Sgt. Jim Perry and K9 partner Ikia stand outside Jordan-Hare Stadium. (contributed)</p>
<p>A close relationship between the APD’s growing K9 program and CPS was a natural fit. The first CPS-sourced APD dog, a Belgian Malinois named Dora, began serving in 2004. Through the mid-to-late 2000s, Auburn CPS instructors and dogs supported APD’s security operations for football games with a new person-borne explosive detection capability that eventually evolved into patented Vapor Wake explosives detection technology. Dogs are trained to detect and track the scent of explosives in the aerodynamic wake of moving people.</p>
<p>The success of those efforts led to ever-greater cooperation between CPS and Auburn police, culminating in 2014 with another CPS German shepherd named Elvis joining the APD as a tracking dog. Soon after, Blair, a narcotics-detecting Labrador retriever was added to the force and is still working with Officer Justin Fant at Auburn High School. The APD has had multiple CPS dogs in its K9 group ever since.</p>
<p>“Auburn invests close to $18,000 into the development and training of each dog, which will further advance detection technologies to make the world a safer place,” Haney said. “Although a goal of CPS is to place exceptionally capable and prepared dogs in some of the nation’s most sensitive security operations, the purpose of the program is not as a business to sell dogs. Rather, it is to serve as a national resource for performing research, development and innovation to enhance detection canine capabilities.”</p>
<p>In 2015, the APD acquired Ikia, its first CPS-bred explosives detection dog (EDD). Since then, two more Auburn-bred EDDs have been added, Underdog and Ginger. Perry said the APD’s plan going forward when adding dogs is to concentrate on EDDs, which can detect firearms. Ginger was donated by the College of Veterinary Medicine to the K9 unit as a replacement for veteran K9 Emily, who was retired this year. Before Emily’s retirement, she served two tours of duty in Iraq and one in Afghanistan, helping protect U.S. troops, before working for seven more years with handler Sgt. Bud Nesmith and the APD to keep the Auburn community safe.</p>
<p>Now her role will be taken over by Ginger, whose litter was sponsored by a philanthropic gift from Walt and Ginger Woltosz – Auburn dog Ginger’s namesake – through the “Help Raise a Hero: Support a Litter” initiative. The program comprises financial donors who support the Canine Performance Sciences breeding program. Ginger mothered several litters before undergoing training to become a K9.</p>
<p>“Ginger is our first person-borne explosives search dog,” Perry said. “With her being brought in to the program in this capacity, we have started moving in that direction with the program as a whole. We have trained Ikia for person-borne explosives detection and are currently working to train and certify Underdog.”</p>
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