Officer Dustin Hoffs patrol car was fitted with a metal kennel in the backseat to house Timmy. It had to be reinforced in the back window after Timmy chewed apart a metal fan.

Chrissy Ragulsky
NewsRegister.com

CARLTON - No one loves going to work more than K-9 Officer Timmy of the Carlton Police Department.

"When I put on my uniform, or go out to the patrol car to warm it up, Timmy is jumping up and down, ready to go to work," said Officer Dustin Hoff, the dog's handler.

The partners are training together to become a certified narcotics search team.

Their presence in Carlton will be a deterrent to drug crimes, as well as another tool in the investigation process, Hoff said. "Drug dealers don't like having a dog in town," he said.

Hoff and Timmy, a lab-hound mix, ride together in a specially marked patrol car. They already have been featured at several public events, including a T-ball program for kids and National Night Out.

When he's off duty, Timmy stays in a kennel. "We have some playtime to work off excess energy," Hoff said, "but mostly, his job is to come here and work."

He definitely isn't a pet, said Hoff and Mack Reid, a master trainer with the Oregon Department of Corrections, who is working with the team.

Reid said it would be wrong to think Timmy and other police dogs are missing out on life, though. They love to work, he said, and they spend far more time with their owners than most other canines

"Timmy gets 40 hours of attention, at a minimum, every week," Reid said. "Most pets don't get that."

Timmy came to Carlton because of Hoff.

Growing up in Carlton, he always had dogs around. In fact, his mother raised springer spaniels.

Hoff, 36, dreamed from an early age of someday becoming a canine handler. He said he became even more certain during his school days, after catching a presentation by canine officers at Yamhill-Carlton High.

Hoff went on to hold a series of jobs with correctional and law enforcement agencies, working in Amity, Warm Springs and other locales.

Then he saw an ad for an opening at the police department in his hometown. Knowing Carlton had once had a drug dog program, he made sure to mention his interest in that area.

Hoff joined the Carlton police in mid-2007. He spent the first several months laying the groundwork for the program and writing a proposal to present to city officials.

Having a drug-sniffing dog on patrol in Carlton would deter drug crime and crime in general, he told the city council. And thanks to donations, it wouldn't cost much, he said.

Not only did Reid volunteer to train both the dog and handler, but the Carlton Veterinary Clinic offered to provide free health check-ups and the Petco Foundation to provide much of the food.

After the council gave its approval, Hoff and Reid set out to find the right dog.

Reid, a McMinnville resident who has given his time to train almost two dozen dog teams for small police agencies, works with the Oregon Humane Society to locate canines with the right instincts. He said he looks for social dogs with an extreme toy drive - dogs that would rather play with a ball than eat, in fact.

Such dogs often end up in shelters because they are too hyperactive to make good pets, Reid said.

But the same characteristics that drive owners berserk produce great police dogs, he said. That's because they are willing to work hard for their favorite reward.

"All that toy drive goes into finding controlled substances, just so they can get that toy," Reid said.

Timmy, 3, is a good example of a toy-driven dog. "He was transfixed by that ball," Hoff said, recalling the first time he and Reid visited Timmy at the shelter.

As a canine, Timmy is naturally equipped for sniffing out drugs. His nose is highly sensitive - thousands of times more sensitive than a human's.

He can detect even minute amounts of drug residue - a coat that someone wore while smoking marijuana, for instance, or the scent of drugs on plastic bags in which the drugs were stored.

To become certified as a drug search team, Timmy and Hoff must put in at least 200 hours of ever-more-challenging training. They must successfully find 800 drug-scented items, while not alerting on drug-free targets, including highly attractive ones such as dog toys or food.

"Timmy is at 437 finds," Hoff said proudly.

When Timmy finds drugs, he puts his nose against the hiding place and sits down. If he's wrong, Hoff tells him "No." If he's right, Hoff tosses Timmy his beloved ball, then begins a further investigation.

During the training, Reid monitors Hoff's behavior.

He rewards Hoff's success at handling Timmy and making complete searches. Conversely, he gives the officer reprimands for not following the dog's signals or making other mistakes.

"They have to learn to be perfect," Reid said. "Whenever he smells the odor of a controlled substance, Timmy must be allowed to go to it, give his response and receive his reward. It takes unwavering, consistent training - and time."

The team is doing well. After several months of working together, Hoff said he has become confident of Timmy's ability to correctly sniff out drugs.

He is still fine-tuning his own ability to read the dog's signals, said Hoff, who also will be taking a drug interdiction course on his own. And as a pair, they are still perfecting their skills at moving through a search area and thoroughly covering every possible hiding place.