Police: Four new canines boost unit?s punch

Baltimore County police officers said the purchase of four hand-selected German shepherds will replenish their depleted K-9 unit after a streak of sudden deaths wiped out six dogs during the past three years.

The four dogs ? Gunny, Zeus, Jet and Carbo ? will be the first to go through an intensive combined basic and specialty training to get the dogs on the streets as quickly as possible, said Lt. Dave Folderauer, the department?sK-9 unit commander. The dogs will be capable of handing everything from drug searches to bomb threats and crowd control to missing Alzheimer?s patients in about 24 weeks, he said.