Paw Patrol

by

The story below is from our March/April 2024 issue. For more stories like it, Subscribe Today. Thank you! 

Four-legged heroes are guardians of valor in Roanoke’s police K9 alliances.

A dog can be different things to different people: a best friend and companion who is there when you need it, a source of safety when someone means you harm, a valuable worker who knows its job well and does it better than anyone or even something to fear.

Police K9s in Roanoke are all of these and more. And their partners and handlers are thankful for them every day.

Roanoke County Police Sergeant Adam Grubb supervises five officer and dog pairs. He’s gotten to know them all well. In addition to natural differences in each dog’s personality, there are differences that come from the handler. The dogs range from two to six-and-a-half years old, and are German Shepherd, Dutch Shepherd or Belgian Malinois.

Good dogs are in demand. Officers are called on all over the area, from missing persons in Catawba to stadium sweeps in Blacksburg.

What surprised Grubb about the department most is the amount of maintenance required and the consistency of the work. Between trainings, certifications and normal veterinary care, checking controlled substances out and in for scent work and regular police procedures, it’s rare that a week goes by without a handler needing his approval for something.

Like all dogs, they require regular veterinary care like vaccinations and flea and tick prevention. But they also need to keep up with their training which involves scent identification, tracking, commands involving a bite suit and recall, agility and more.

The RCPD has an agility course named after a now-retired K9, the Cash Agility Course, and a scent identification wall made up of a series of PVC pipes on site.

Officers will place a small amount of a substance to identify in one of the tubes, and the K9 will check the tubes and give a signal to identify which tube has the substance. When they get it, the handler will then release a reward, such as a tennis ball or tug toy, through the tube for the dog to receive.

Each K9 must be recertified each year by the Virginia Police Work Dog Association on this and other skills. To keep everyone sharp, that means 16 hours of training each month.

Recertification involves tracking a person over a quarter-mile, responding to commands precisely, identifying odors and more. And they need to get the whole thing right for it to count.

Officer Nathaniel Winstead partners with K9 Mavric on narcotics patrol and SWAT. For Winstead, recertification is stressful, but for Mavric, who’s unaware of the stakes, it’s “just another day.”

Winstead selected Mavric from a facility in South Carolina. His biggest challenge at the time was his love of his toy. He didn’t want to let it go.

It’s been rewarding seeing him grow and learn. “We’re in it together, and that bond takes time.”

Today, Mavric clearly hangs on Winstead’s every word and action.

Officer Kristina Wilhelm has been with Roanoke County Police Department for 17 years. Nearly 11 of those were in the K9 unit. She loves the work and feels it’s the best position on the force.

Wilhelm grew up working with hunting dogs and was already leaning toward K9 police work when she participated in a presentation while in college.

“I was in the bite suit … and I was like, yeah, I definitely want to do this,” she says.

Her K9 partner is a German Shepherd named Ghost. Ghost is an explosives patrol dog and her second K9.

Her first partner, Body (pronounced Boh-dee), was a tough act to follow. He was primarily a narcotics patrol dog but also an excellent tracker.

“Body got an award one time. We found a missing dementia patient who had wandered off.”

At 12 years old, Body is now living the good life as a house dog. He’s sweet, loving and protective with her children and can be a bit of a couch potato. But even in his retirement, it’s hard to take the work out of the dog.

He still circles the police car in the morning in an effort to get inside. Wilhelm has to put him in the backyard until she leaves when the kids let him in.

That’s the hardest part for Wilhelm, and it’s the reason she thinks that Ghost will be her last K9. Although it’s extremely rewarding and there’s nothing like the bond, she can see it’s a little hard on the retirees, at least for Body.

He’s a bit jealous of Ghost going out on the job. And he’s been known to correct him when their styles clash. Ghost was originally with another handler who trained him to jump up on top of him in a greeting. Body worries and barks at Ghost when he sees it happening.

One thing Body and Wilhelm don’t have to worry about is vet bills.

The care of the working dogs in the canine unit is covered by Roanoke County, but the retirees are not. Luckily, a Virginia nonprofit called Paws of Honor covers all of Body’s veterinary expenses as well as that of other retired police dogs.

Another nonprofit that’s been vital to the health and safety of Roanoke County K9s is Spike’s K9 Fund. In addition to supporting training, Spike’s fits and funds a Kevlar vest for all the dogs at the department, as well as many others in Virginia and beyond.

One recently saved a dog in Roanoke City which is a comfort to Officer Winstead and other handlers. “I love and care greatly for Mavric… [sending him into the unknown] is kind of one of the harder parts of K9… knowing that this is your best friend and your partner,” he says.

Officers don’t send K9s into situations where they know someone is armed, but they do sometimes have to send them to find someone in a building or open area where they don’t yet have all the information.

The dogs are “very much a deterrent” and aid in catching suspects, according to Officer Wilhelm. She said that although she’s had to send both Body and Ghost after a noncompliant suspect, she’s been lucky that in both cases, they didn’t need to connect.

When the person saw the large dog running toward him, he immediately gave up. Wilhelm was able to halt the dog before they reached him.

“I was able to call the dog off and the dog stood there until my backup officer put him in handcuffs and then I called him back to me. You know everybody talks about the dogs being dangerous … but you can’t shoot a gun and recall the bullet or shoot a Taser and recall the probes.”

It’s a testament to the dogs’ ability to be very responsive and the bond they have with their handlers.

Of course, in many cases, the object of pursuit is not a danger but in danger. K9s are invaluable in finding missing persons too, including children who’ve run away, older people with dementia and people with mental illness such as Body’s aforementioned story.

Wilhelm often does demos out in the community and Ghost has to be around children. They’re usually very excited to meet him and often want to pet him. She’s trained him to be good around all different people, but when he hears a command or even a change in her voice, his demeanor immediately changes.

He can be friendly to kids one minute, and apprehend a dangerous person the next. He’s very in tune, and that goes both ways.

That ability to communicate and respond is one of the reasons that dogs make such good officers. They’ve had centuries of cooperation with humans. Anthropologists agree that dogs were the first animals domesticated by humans, and our evolutions are entwined. Many think early humans learned some of their hunting skills from early dogs.

In fact, in experiments, even an unsocialized dog will look toward a human for help when presented with a problem before trying to solve it on its own, unlike its undomesticated wolf pup counterpart.

Then there’s the protective bond. Most dogs naturally want to protect their handler. And the training they receive enhances that. When you combine all this with their incredible scent detection ability and natural strength, you get a powerful partner.

Officer Wilhelm agrees that the bond is incredible and she couldn’t ask for better back up.

“I would definitely say, in my opinion, it’s the best job in the department.”

The story above is from our March/April 2024 issue. For more stories like it, Subscribe Today. Thank you!