Morgan Hill Police officer David Ray works with his new dog, Pax, during a box search drill with the help of Jaroslav Vyhnal, from the Czech Republic, at Witmer-Tyson Police Dog Training School in Newark Friday morning.
Morgan Hill finally reinstated its K9 program after nearly three years without a police dog thanks to $75,000 from the nonprofit foundation that benefits area law enforcement efforts.
Pax, the German shepherd half of the department's new K9 unit, is 16 months old and is participating in a four-week training program.
Born in the Czech Republic, Pax initially responded to commands in Czechoslovakian and German, but Morgan Hill police officer David Ray said now he just uses the German commands.
"It's an amazing thing to me, the partnership that develops," said Ray, who was chosen to be Pax's handler. "I have always loved animals, been around animals, and I've been interested in being a K9 officer for a while."
Ray, who has been with the MHPD for six years, was an animal control officer prior to joining the department. He is looking forward, he said, to working with Pax.
"I'm very excited to be able to do this," he said. "I think this is going to be a great asset to the department and to the community."
As part of their training, Pax and Ray are learning basic commands for working together as well as how to respond to more intense situations, such as apprehending a criminal. A trainer with a "bite sleeve" or full-body suit pretends to attack or to flee, and Pax, at Ray's command, must get the trainer.
Ray said Pax is very enthusiastic about his work, and he is raring to go when it is his turn to participate in the training.
"He definitely knows when he's working and when he's not," he said.
One of the owners of the training academy, Randy Tyson Witmer, said she has been working with police dogs for approximately 45 years. The German shepherd breeding program Pax came from, known as Schutzhund, is designed to create a working dog. Training starts when the puppies are three months old, then continues when the dogs are paired with their handlers.
Though other dogs are used in law enforcement, the German shepherd is the most popular, Tyson Witmer said.
"It's the most popular breed in the world," she said. "With well over a hundred years of breeding involved, these dogs are the good soldiers in police work."
The average cost for these dogs is $10,000, she said, which does not include the cost of the initial training and maintenance training the dogs need. Pax was able to join the MHPD because of an agreement between the city and the Community Law Enforcement Foundation. President David Cohen presented the city with a check for $75,000 on July 16.
"We are fortunate that thanks to the generosity of the community through the coordination of CLEF, we were able to reinstate this program," said Morgan Hill police Cmdr. David Swing. "We're excited about getting Pax out on the street to assist officers on patrol and also to build bridges with the community as he is out and about and visible."
It has been several years since the department had a K9 unit, Swing said, and there have been incidents during those years that, if there had been a department K9 available, different decisions about how to handle the incident would have been made. On one occasion, two SWAT officers went into the crawl space under a home to locate a murder suspect.
"In that case, the dog can track the scent and help confirm that the person is there, and at that point, we probably would have chosen to deploy other tools," he said.
Pax will also provide a connection to the community, Swing added, attending events including Public Safety Day and other events that provide an opportunity to meet the public.
Marilyn Dubil Marilyn Dubil covers education and law enforcement for The Times. Reach her at (408) 779-4106 ext. 202 or send her an email.
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