By Dan Zak
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, August 20, 2006

A man had been stabbed in Lexington Park, and while officers were trying to resuscitate him, another breed of cop was already hot on the suspect's trail. German shepherd Roni led his partner, Sheriff's Deputy Todd Fleenor, through woods to a six-foot-tall fence.

On the other side, officers soon surrounded and arrested the suspect, who later admitted to the stabbing. Case closed, almost immediately -- all because of the sniffing skills of 8-year-old Roni.

This apprehension was one of 52 made possible this year by police dogs and their partners in St. Mary's County. The use of K9 units in Southern Maryland has grown over the past five years as training has become more sophisticated and jurisdictions have beefed up anti-terrorism efforts.

"Our unit basically doubled over last year," said Cpl. Kenneth Gregory, K9 supervisor and trainer for Calvert County's Criminal Investigations Team. "We wanted to keep dogs available 24-7. We wanted that coverage."

Today, Calvert has six dogs cross-trained in combinations of narcotics, explosives and patrol work. After the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, St. Mary's added two explosives-sniffing dogs to its unit, bringing its total of dogs to five. Charles County has 10, with another being trained to join the force.

"The guys are really using the dogs," said Cpl. Ron Leukhardt, who assists with K9 training in Charles County. "Consequently, we're getting the arrests to go with it. The confidence of the officers has gone up, too. The guys are figuring out the utility of the dogs, and that their job becomes easier when they use them."

Dogs are used primarily to protect officers and back up patrol units. They are also used to scan cars during routine traffic stops, a practice that has increased since the Supreme Court ruled in January 2005 that such searches were constitutional.

The St. Mary's K9 unit routinely sweeps the Patuxent River Naval Air Station, and Calvert's does the same at the Calvert Cliffs nuclear power plant. Explosives-sniffing dogs make daily visits with their handlers to courthouses in each county.

Dogs also are used to track fleeing criminals and apprehend them. But the instances when they are instructed to chase and bite are few and far between, and officers will instruct their canine partners to do so only under very specific circumstances.

"In one year, Robby and I had 30 apprehensions, no bites," Gregory said of his K9 partner. "[People] give up as soon as they see the dog."

Most police dogs are German shepherds, Labrador retrievers and Belgian malinois. Calvert, however, also employs a bloodhound, and some jurisdictions have been known to use beagles and Chihuahuas, as long as the animals demonstrate the appropriate drive and trainability.

With the demand from police agencies rising, the price of untrained dogs is $5,000, according to Russell Hess, the national director of the U.S. Police Canine Association. Trained dogs can sell for as much as $10,000.

"We used to get them for nothing," said Hess, who has worked with police dogs during most of his four decades in law enforcement. "Departments used to get their dogs through donations."

Working in a K9 unit is a physically demanding job, according to Sgt. Andrew Cusick, the first certified trainer in St. Mary's County and head of its K9 unit.

"If a suspect flees, it's the K9 guys that will be chasing them through the woods or climbing through windows," Cusick said.

Dogs train with their handlers, work beside them and live with their families off the clock. The special bond between cop and K9 is evident every Tuesday on a 1,500-acre farm in Piney Point where the St. Mary's unit trains all day.

Deputy David Gerhardt's partner, a German shepherd named Frigo, is his 15-month-old son's best friend at home. But when Gerhardt gets in his squad car, Frigo knows it's time to work.

"When I take him home, it's down time," Gerhardt said, as Frigo raced up to a fellow deputy during an attack exercise. "But when he sees us walk out in our black suits, it's business."

Staff writer Ernesto Londoño contributed to this report.