Ringo, a 2-year-old Belgian Malinois, coursed along a row of wooden crates, nose and tail held high, as he searched for a cop playing a bad guy.
At one end of the row, he let out a string of high-pitched barks and tried to scale 5 feet of crate, biting chunks of pine from the lid before falling back to the sun-baked concrete.
“You need a dog born to do this work. They are definitely special dogs,” said Douglas Church, a trainer with the Denver Police Canine Unit.
Ringo, a member of the Lakewood Police Department, and his handler, K-9 Officer Patrick Lone, are among 30 cop-and-dog teams who will compete in today’s Colorado Police Association K-9 Challenge at the Pepsi Center.
They will be judged in categories ranging from best narcotics detection and best search to fastest dog.
On Saturday, the dog and Lone were among teams going through their paces in a warehouse parking lot in order to get certified.
Two other Malinois – Kuno, 2, and Eddy, 5 – quickly found the right box. Inside lay a sweat-drenched Denver patrol officer, Kenny Brown, one of several volunteer decoys that K-9 handlers affectionately refer to as “chew toys.”
Had Brown been an armed desperado, any one of the dogs would have made a dangerous job a little bit safer, said an undercover narcotics officer who works with his own dog: “The dog has kept us from having to stick our head in every box.”
The dogs are capable of launching a ferocious attack if needed, Church said.
But the menace they put into their work doesn’t mean they are vicious, said Church, who counts a retired police dog as part of his family.
Handlers form a tight bond with their dogs, training, working and living with them.
The mahogany-colored Ringo is Lone’s son’s best friend.
When Ringo is hanging around the house, Lone doesn’t issue commands. “At home, I just let him be a dog. But he knows when I get my work clothes on, it is time for fun.”
Handlers go through a 14-week training course with their dogs, during which both learn to do the jobs they must perform in the streets.
“It is pretty challenging because it’s a learning process for me too,” said Jeremy McElroy, 27, of the Castle Rock Police Department.
Dogs undergo a battery of tests to see if they have the drive and other characteristics needed for police work before they are put in training.
The average police dog costs about $5,000 and most of those in the United States are bred in Europe, Church said. Training begins when the dogs are about 1 1/2 years old, Church said, and those that qualify spend an average of nine years on duty.
The K-9 Challenge is open to the public for a $5 admission fee.
Staff writer Tom McGhee can be reached at 303-954-1671 or tmcghee@denverpost.com.
