K-9 Bodhi is following in some pretty big paw prints. As the newest addition to the Port St. Lucie Police Department, he’s undergoing strenuous training – learning not only the basic commands, but also tracking and identifying explosives.
For the last several weeks, he and his human counterpart, Officer Will Harris, have been working long hours to get Bodhi up to snuff.
At a recent meet-and-greet with the media, Bodhi put on a show – quickly maneuvering an obstacle course at McCarty Ranch, nose to the ground, sniffing for clues.
At just 1 year old, Bodhi wasn’t suited up in his official police gear.
“He looks like he’s wearing his dad’s uniform,” Harris said by way of explanation. Bodhi will continue to grow, putting on lean muscle and filling out. Until then, his gear’s straps would be too long and floppy to be comfortable.
“He’s a baby,” Harris said of the Belgian Malinois. Bodhi lives with Harris and his family, which includes recently retired K-9 Oliver.
“They’re doing OK,” Harris said, adding that the transition has been “interesting,” for lack of a better term. There’s been a bit of barking, some anxiety from Oliver when Harris and Bodhi leave for work. “They’re not ready to play ball together,” the officer said of the K-9s, but they’re getting there.
Bodhi hails from eastern Europe (Slovakia, to be precise) but is being trained in Dutch – a language Harris used with K-9 Oliver and K-9 Marco. He’s learning the basics – sit, heal, stay, come – and other obedience tasks, all which help forge a strong bond between K-9 and Officer, Harris said.
But it’s not just one task at a time; like any good officer, K-9 Bodhi has to be able to multi-task. “He’s getting a little bit of every discipline,” Harris said.
Bodhi is learning to track on multiple and changing surfaces, search for articles and people, and even “man-work” – engaging and disengaging a decoy (think bringing down a suspect).
If that weren’t enough for Bodhi, the canine has been tasked with learning to sniff out explosive materials as well – a task more involved than sniffing out drugs.
There are 13 primary odors and 30 combinations thereof that Bodhi has to learn. By comparison, drug dogs need only learn four.
Harris said that not only did they need to find a dog with a keen nose, but also one who had the right temperament “We need a dog that’s not a bull in a china shop,” he said, one who is calm and level-headed and won’t try to retrieve the item that triggers his response. “It definitely takes a special dog.”
K-9 Bodhi is the first Harris was allowed to hand-select. He was part of a contingent from the Port St. Lucie Police Department who went to Miami to evaluate five potential K-9s. For Harris, it came down to Bodhi and one other. Bodhi “stayed on nose” better than the other candidates – edging him ahead of the crowd. He also had to be sociable while doing the job; as an explosive ordinance detection K-9, Bodhi will be tasked with sniffing around large people-filled events. It wouldn’t do to have a snarling dog at the end of the leash.
Detecting explosives can be a life-or-death matter, not just for the officers but also for the public nearby. “He’s got more on his shoulders,” Harris said of his newest partner.
K-9 Bodhi is working on receiving two certifications. The first is expected to be complete in May, at which time he can officially hit the streets with Harris. The second certification is expected later this year.
Bodhi is an “interesting character,” Harris said – one with only two speeds: extremely playful or sleeping. “He’s a tenacious worker.”
