When Auburn Police Sgt. and K9 program supervisor James Perry and his canine partner Ikia are working, Perry’s thoughts occasionally return to his 2003 deployment with the Alabama National Guard in Iraq. It was there he saw firsthand the havoc that IEDs (improvised explosive devices) cause, as well as how military dogs, like his 8-year-old crossbred Labrador retriever/German wire-haired pointer, help prevent tragedy and make soldiers and civilians safer.

Today, keeping people safe is the mission of Perry and other handlers in the city of Auburn Police Division (APD) K9 program. It is also the primary goal of the Auburn University College of Veterinary Medicine’s Canine Performance Sciences (CPS) program, which has led to the two programs forming a close and cooperative relationship. The APD has four dogs bred at CPS to become detection dogs, or so-called Auburn Dogs – Ikia, Ginger, Underdog and Blair. Three are trained in explosives and firearms detection and one to locate narcotics.

“Auburn’s CPS program breeds dogs specifically for performing detection work and is the longest continuously running institutional detection-dog breeding program in the nation,” said Pamela Haney, manager of CPS performance research and development. “From the time they are 3 days old, our puppies are engaged in age-appropriate protocols to prepare them for detection tasks. By the age of 12 months, the dogs have had several evaluations assessing their potential to be successfully trained as detection canines. We focus on preparing dogs that will be placed with operational explosives detection programs, particularly for the specialty of person-borne explosives detection.

“Some dogs may be retained by the program for detection-related research across myriad other target materials, including improvised/homemade explosives, endangered and invasive species ecological detection and biological/restricted hazardous agents,” she said. “One or two of the highest-performing dogs from successful litters are retained for breeding, and other dogs are retained with particular characteristics conducive to needed special detection research, development and other applications.”

Auburn Police Sgt. Jim Perry and K9 partner Ikia stand outside Jordan-Hare Stadium. (contributed)

A close relationship between the APD’s growing K9 program and CPS was a natural fit. The first CPS-sourced APD dog, a Belgian Malinois named Dora, began serving in 2004. Through the mid-to-late 2000s, Auburn CPS instructors and dogs supported APD’s security operations for football games with a new person-borne explosive detection capability that eventually evolved into patented Vapor Wake explosives detection technology. Dogs are trained to detect and track the scent of explosives in the aerodynamic wake of moving people.

The success of those efforts led to ever-greater cooperation between CPS and Auburn police, culminating in 2014 with another CPS German shepherd named Elvis joining the APD as a tracking dog. Soon after, Blair, a narcotics-detecting Labrador retriever was added to the force and is still working with Officer Justin Fant at Auburn High School. The APD has had multiple CPS dogs in its K9 group ever since.

“Auburn invests close to $18,000 into the development and training of each dog, which will further advance detection technologies to make the world a safer place,” Haney said. “Although a goal of CPS is to place exceptionally capable and prepared dogs in some of the nation’s most sensitive security operations, the purpose of the program is not as a business to sell dogs. Rather, it is to serve as a national resource for performing research, development and innovation to enhance detection canine capabilities.”

In 2015, the APD acquired Ikia, its first CPS-bred explosives detection dog (EDD). Since then, two more Auburn-bred EDDs have been added, Underdog and Ginger. Perry said the APD’s plan going forward when adding dogs is to concentrate on EDDs, which can detect firearms. Ginger was donated by the College of Veterinary Medicine to the K9 unit  as a replacement for veteran K9 Emily, who was retired this year. Before Emily’s retirement, she served two tours of duty in Iraq and one in Afghanistan, helping protect U.S. troops, before working for seven more years with handler Sgt. Bud Nesmith and the APD to keep the Auburn community safe.

Now her role will be taken over by Ginger, whose litter was sponsored by a philanthropic gift from Walt and Ginger Woltosz – Auburn dog Ginger’s namesake – through the “Help Raise a Hero: Support a Litter” initiative. The program comprises financial donors who support the Canine Performance Sciences breeding program. Ginger mothered several litters before undergoing training to become a K9.

“Ginger is our first person-borne explosives search dog,” Perry said. “With her being brought in to the program in this capacity, we have started moving in that direction with the program as a whole. We have trained Ikia for person-borne explosives detection and are currently working to train and certify Underdog.”

Auburn Police Officer Jason Bryan and K9 partner Ginger pose with, standing from left, Auburn Mayor Ron Anders, College of Veterinary Medicine Dean Calvin Johnson and Auburn Police Division Assistant Chief Clarence Stewart. (contributed)

What’s it like working with these incredible canines? In addition to pre-event sweeps and person screening for large events at Auburn sports venues, the dogs work every regular shift just like their police partners. To a man, the handlers sing the dogs’ praises.

“Underdog and I work on a patrol shift, and he is with me anytime I put my uniform on,” said Officer Justin Sanders, a six-year APD veteran who joined the K9 program in 2020 with his new partner, a 3-year-old Labrador retriever. “On an average day, we respond to suspicious package complaints, calls for service, assist in locating firearms when needed, respond to bomb threats and assist surrounding agencies, if requested. At the end of our 12-hour shift, Underdog comes home with me, and he is my responsibility at all times.

“He has come to be my best friend and he is a very good listener,” Sanders said jokingly. “I enjoy working with him, and I would like to think he enjoys working with me. Even on off days, we hang out together most of the time, whether it be going on walks, to the park or him riding with me while I run errands.”

Perry is similarly attached to his partner, Ikia, but her unusual breed mix often raises eyebrows.

“People are always asking what kind of dog she is, or I’ll overhear them saying things like that’s a ‘labradoodle police dog,’” he said. “That always leads to a conversation about her breed. I usually start by joking that she is a giant schnauzer.

“Then the conversation goes into explaining the cross-breeding process and that she was bred by Auburn University specifically for explosives detection work. People generally are amazed to hear about the program and find it very interesting that Auburn is involved in that kind of research.”

The dogs come with a long list of preprogrammed directions from their extensive training.

“Superior detection dogs are rare,” Haney said. “CPS breeds and develops canines to possess specific traits. They must have a high reward value and be willing to search for long periods. CPS dogs must also have high hunt instincts, with their noses always stimulating them to investigate. They need high trainability, which gives them the ability to learn new tasks quickly. They must be highly motivated, not easily discouraged, attentive and able to work in any environment. And most importantly, the dogs must be medically sound.”

Auburn Police Sgt. Jim Perry and K9 partner Ikia work in Jordan-Hare Stadium prior to a recent graduation ceremony. (contributed)

To achieve this, CPS incorporates genetic and genomic concepts to influence breeding selection and enhance puppy development. These practices ensure CPS is making genetic progress. CPS puppies attend the program’s 11-month puppy school, where they are socialized, acclimated to being comfortable working in all types of places and taught about being alert to an odor to receive a reward.

Dogs undergo constant evaluation to tailor development and training programs for their future work placement, giving them the greatest chance to succeed. The agency or private detection canine services companies that purchase the dogs from CPS then provide further training in specific targets before each dog begins its working career in law enforcement, security or other detection applications.

Even after the dogs become “working canines,” training for the dogs and handlers never stops, said Officer Jason Bryan, who is partnered with Ginger, the 4-year-old Labrador retriever.

“Training to become a K9 handler is very hands-on,” Bryan said. “To become a basic EDD handler takes a four-week course. Then Ginger and I had additional training in order to become a kinetic EDD Team, which means we can search persons in a crowd.

“Once trained, we had to pass a certification test through the United Police Work Dog Association, which involved searching vehicles, rooms, boxes, open areas and people. We had to find all of the training aids with no false indications. After certification, the department requires a minimum of 16 hours training every month for each K9 team, and every year Ginger and I will have to recertify to continue working together.”

It is a tough, sometimes thankless job, but nothing else – man or machine – does it better.

Perry remains in awe of the dogs’ abilities even after many years working with them.

“Their detection abilities far outweigh where all other technologies are today,” he said. “I genuinely believe we can protect our community and visitors to Auburn and Auburn University in ways that could not be done without these dogs. And they are so much more than simple tools to their handlers. They are police officers, they are friends and they are family.”

This story originally appeared on Auburn University’s website.