Jack, a black Labrador, and Koda, a yellow Lab, began their jobs detecting explosives for the Arlington County Police Department on Monday.
Though there are six other police dogs in the department, Jack and Koda stand out. The other six are dual-purpose dogs. They do tracking and searching as well as drug and bomb detection.
“[Jack and Koda] are only going to be used for one purpose,” said Officer Chris Martin, who works and lives with Jack, “and that is to find explosives.”
The dogs went through 12 weeks of intense training, during which they learned tosniff out 26 kinds of explosives in different environments.
Jack and Koda also are different because they were not bred to be police dogs. The police department adopted them, one from an animal shelter and the other from a pet rescue Web site.
“[We have] doubled our explosive detection at no cost to the public,” said Officer Bryan Morrison, pointing out that both dogs were free and the department trained them. Morrison lives and works with Koda.
There were a few problems with training the adopted dogs. Unlike specially bred police dogs, Jack and Koda arrived with no previous training. The department did not have much background information on either dog, and the two were a little less obedient than most police dogs.
“Neither of them have had a chance to do real work yet, since school,” Martin said.
Both officers agree that once Jack and Koda begin “working,” they will be happy. “To them, this is all fun,” Martin said.
