It's a Dog's Life in the K-9 Unit

An 85-pound Belgian Malinois pounces on a blue canvas toy thrown by his owner. He shakes the toy, tail wagging, oblivious to the amusement of bystanders. Watching him play, you wouldn't know he's one of Cobb County's top K-9 unit dogs.

"You can have your picture taken with him," Officer Mark Blakeney tells children gathering around the dog as parents snap photos.

Trained in narcotics detection, criminal apprehension, human tracking, building clearing and evidence recovery, Diesel works alongside police daily to sniff out evidence and criminals. On this sunny November morning, the officer and his partner are educating the public about the K-9 unit at the Friends of Mabry Park preview.

Diesel's No. 1 responsibility is sniffing out narcotics, and his second-most-requested skill is tracking, Blakeney said.

"If a perpetrator runs from police and tosses his gun, Diesel will find the gun by sniffing for the hot human scent," Blakeney said in a later interview. That's evidence recovery.

A dog's scent organ (inside his nose) is about four times as large as a human's, and a dog's sense of smell is 50 to 100 times more powerful than a human's. A dog can identify a specific scent even if masked by other strong scents. A police dog can sniff out criminals, drugs, weapons and bombs in a large area much faster than a human officer can find them. 

Diesel is one of five dogs serving in Cobb County's K-9 unit. Cobb police choose Belgian Malinois, which look very much like German shepherds, because the breed is thought to have the best temperament for police work. Four of the dogs are trained to search for narcotics, while the other is trained for explosive ordnance disposal (EOD), sniffing out any of 13 explosives odors. All of the dogs track.

Diesel not only locates a suspect by scent, but upon Blakeney's command he also can subdue the suspect until an officer takes the dog into custody. 

Blakeney and Diesel train once a week for eight hours. The weekly maintenance training consists of hiding drugs in a car or building that the dogs must locate, and "laying tracks," in which a police dog must find a hiding person.

They work the night shift. Their workday begins at 6 p.m. and ends at 4 a.m. Patrol work consists of car stops and responding to K-9 requests.

"We are not tied to any one particular area," Blakeney said. "We might be in Acworth and then we're called to the Six Flags area."

Diesel was imported from the Czech Republic and is 4 1/2 years old. He is assigned to Blakeney 24/7. They will spend the rest of Diesel's life together. Diesel lives with Blakeney's family and enjoys leisurely dog fun, like chasing tennis balls.

Diesel will stay in service until pain or the inability to perform forces him into retirement, usually at age 9 or 10. 

Diesel has been a K-9 dog in Cobb since 2007. He and Blakeney have had several successful finds. Visit Northeast Cobb Patch tomorrow to read about their big find in Smyrna.