By Lori Monsewicz
Dayton Daily News
CANTON, Ohio — Nitro, a bomb-detection dog with the Brimfield Police Department near Canton, alerts authorities to a possible explosive device during a training exercise.
As word of the Boston Marathon bombings spread across the United States, police officers around the country relied on dogs to search for hidden explosives in and around potential targets.
That’s why K-9 trainer and Canton Police Officer Eric Stan-bro said he wouldn’t be surprised if the demand for bomb dogs increases.
Stanbro noted that Boston police conducted bomb sweeps before the event. “They went through twice with the bomb dogs, and then the individual just came in afterward’ and placed the bombs, he said.
More dogs are being trained for bomb detection all the time.
Brimfield Police Officer Robert Putnam is training his police-dog partner, Nitro, to detect materials used to make explosives. Nitro is 10 months old, the youngest dog to train at Canton’s police facility.
Canton has two bomb-detection dogs — Zeke, with Officer Chris Heslop, and Pantzer, with Officer Mark Diehls.
Both German shepherds, Zeke is about to retire, Heslop said. On the job since 2005 and going on 8 years old, Zeke will see his last day on the job April 30. Zeke was just a year old when he started training to detect explosive materials.
Zeke is being replaced by Zayne, a Belgian Malinois shepherd, Stanbro said.
Zayne was given to the city free of charge at 9 months of age, Heslop said. He’ll be 2 years old in November.
While the dogs may seem young to train for police work, the United States Police Canine Association maintains that temperament testing for patrol work is best done when a dog is young. “Malinois seem to mature early at 1 to 2 years,” and German shepherds at 2 to 3 years old, says its website, www.uspcak9.com.
Zeke, Pantzer and Zayne were cross-trained for patrol duties including drug detection and for explosives, Stan-bro said.
The dogs work all year, but they especially are busy during the city’s Pro Football Hall of Fame festivities.
“We conduct a sweep at every event, a sweep that the public doesn’t see,” Stanbro said. “We go through the entire Fawcett Stadium. Every seat, every row of bleachers, the lockers, the equipment rooms, every bus and vehicle inside ...”
The dogs are kept on site, should someone find a suspicious package.
Ohio requires certified bomb-detection dogs to possess the ability to detect the odors of seven types of materials used to make explosives, according to Stanbro and the USPCA website. Stanbro said Canton dogs can detect at least 24, and in various combinations.
For part of the training, the officers use a behavioral shaping device, such as a box containing a remote-controlled spring, Stanbro said. The spring kicks out a tennis ball in the box when the dog finds the box with explosives.
When a dog detects a box containing explosives, he simply sits and stares intently at it, Stanbro said. The dog is waiting for a ball to pop from the box he knows has explosives.
“It’s the dog’s drive and desire to play with the ball — the toy drive (that’s important). Not just the desire to play with the ball, but to go look for it, to hunt for it,” Stanbro said.
Copyright 2013 Dayton Newspapers, Inc.