By Stephen Cowles

Various locations in Isle of Wight County served as training grounds for police dogs and their handlers last week.

They could be seen at the Airway Shopping Plaza in Carrsville, at the Fairgrounds in Windsor, in Smithfield and at three other sites that offered a variety of law enforcement contexts.

Lt. Tommy Potter, spokesman for the Isle of Wight Sheriff’s Office, said this was the first time such an event has been hosted in the county. Both the sheriff’s department and Smithfield Police set about organizing the fall training for the state affiliate of the North American Police Work Dog Association after Sheriff Mark Marshall had heard the suggestion and then supported it.

Monday was set aside for classroom training. A former Commonwealth’s Attorney, whose speciality had been case law involving police dogs, was a guest speaker.

Hands-on training at the different venues began last Tuesday.

About 65 handlers and their dogs took part, moving from site to site.

“We’re able to offer them different type of environments for first-class training,” Potter said, adding thanks to the owner of the shopping center for allowing use of the property. American K-9 Interdiction, one of several corporate sponsors, participated, as well.

Potter, a K-9 handler in Franklin for many years, said it is increasingly difficult to find good places to train police dogs. Growth can limit opportunities, he explained. Norfolk, for example, has really only an urban setting. Another place might be strictly rural.

“We offer a little bit of both in Isle of Wight,” Potter said.

Police dogs come from a variety of sources, but they are required to have some special qualities.

“There are dogs that do come from the pound,” Potter said. “But you just can’t pick any one. They have to have certain drives — be sociable.”

Professional breeders supply most of the dogs that will be trained for police work.

“There’s a lot of in-depth selection process for dogs and officers or deputies to be handlers,” he said.

Just to reach the basic level of certification can take 13 to 16 weeks.

“It’s a heavy selection process,” he added

Most police dogs are of the utility/detective genre. Others can be detectors, sniffing for narcotics and explosives. Bloodhounds primarily track people. Then there’s conditioning to do building searches and apprehending suspects.

“We have a good canine unit throughout Western Tidewater, and we work well with each,” Potter said. “Suffolk has a great program.”

He wants to clear up a misconception about such these animals:

“Most people think that the canines are attack dogs. That is not the case. They’re not doing it [attacking] to be vicious, but to catch. They are highly trained.

The dog doesn’t get up thinking ‘I want to go bite someone today.’ They have a natural drive to play. But instead of a getting ball, they get a person.”