Police dogs attend K-9 college in Yakima

The old cartoon crime dog McGruff’s slogan may be “Take a bite out crime,” but a real police dog’s primary asset is its sniffer.

“The main reason we use them is for their nose,” said John Munson, president of the Washington State Police Canine Association.

Of course, powerful jaws that can clamp down on a forearm or ankle help too, especially when a police dog scrambles into a dark, confined space pursuing a bad guy who might have a gun.

That’s one of the scenarios that dogs and their handlers encounter at the WSPCA spring seminar this week in Yakima. There are 14 training sites, eight for K-9 patrol dogs and six for drug dogs.

There are 125 K-9 units from law enforcement agencies around the Northwest and British Columbia participating in the training seminar, hosted by the Yakima Police Department.

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