NO-NONSENSE NOSE

Charlie is undeniably adorable.

He has shiny black fur, entreating dark eyes and an irresistible way of
looking pathetic when he wants his head scratched. He barks, whines,
drools, begs for dog biscuits and, for all appearances, behaves just like
any other almost-six-year-old labrador retriever with a penchant for chew
toys and gooey human snacks.

He is also the Port Orchard Police Department's most sophisticated weapon
in the war on drugs in Kitsap County.

Charlie and his handler, Officer Beth Deatherage, make up Port Orchard's
first full-time K-9 drug detection unit. Any time any agency in the county
needs an area searched for hidden narcotics, Deatherage and Charlie can be
called up. Cars, houses, fields, trailers -- Charlie can handle them all.

"Charlie, for some reason, has a natural talent for finding dope,"
Deatherage said. "He's pulled me through some accreditations before."
Charlie has found drugs hidden in electrical outlets, in paper towel
dispensers and in overhead cabinets far beyond his normal reach. Deatherage
said Charlie often improvises in these situations -- to get at the overhead
cabinet, she said, he used a sofa at the other end of the room to get up
onto the counter and thereby gain access to the narcotics he was tracking.

Deatherage said she can't even begin to estimate the amount of drugs
Charlie has tracked down in the three-and-a-half years they've worked
together. Most of the finds have been small -- a dime bag here, a few
ounces there. However, that doesn't mean they don't occasionally have big
busts.

"We've dealt with big-time dealers, too," she said.

Top of his class

Charlie is trained for four narcotics odors: marijuana, heroin, cocaine and
methamphetamine. He received his training at an Everett-area school run by
a Everett detective. Det. Fred Helfers, who current specializes in cracking
money laundering operations with the Snohomish Regional Drug Task Force,
has been training dogs since 1982.

Helfers hand-selects each dog and starts their training between the ages of
one and three. He said he looks for dogs that are very energetic, very
enthusiastic and well-socialized. A dog which doesn't have a lot of energy
won't make a very good working animal, Helfers said, and a poorly
socialized dog won't be able to handle the often-intimidating life of
police work.

"(It can't) mind going into dark corners in deep, dark houses," he said.

Dogs start out with marijuana because it has the strongest odor. They learn
to retrieve a towel saturated with the narcotic odor, then learn to find it
when hidden in and under things. Dogs are rewarded for finding the towel,
and also for giving a specific "alert" -- usually scratching at the source
of the odor.

"We don't use any force methods -- it's all positive reinforcement,"
Helfers said.

Because many of Helfers' dogs come from bird-hunting trainers, it's often
second nature for them to hone in on a scent and track it to its origin.
They key, Helfers said, is for the dogs to stay focused on the narcotic
odor despite distractions.

Charlie, Helfers said, had no prior search training, but still consistently
performed at the top of his "class."

"If my memory serves me correct, Charlie was way up there all the time,"
Helfers reminisced. "His is all instinctual drive, and those dogs sometimes
make the best drug dogs. I wish I could take credit for it, but I can't."

During the 12- to 16-week training period, Helfers and his training
assistant run the dogs through search after search through fields, houses,
cars -- every possible environment. They are taught searching patterns and
get accustomed to finding the drug odors, even when extremely faint or
accompanied by other, stronger scents. By the end of training, Helfers'
dogs are able to pick up narcotics smells anywhere under any conditions --
the cliched Hollywood trick of packing drugs in coffee grounds would not
give the dogs even a moment's pause, Helfers said.

"Dogs smell odor molecules and that's what triggers the scent memory," he
said. "Does masking drug odors work? No. If an odor molecule gets out,
they'll find it."

Deatherage said Charlie has gotten his own chances to prove all those
smell-masking attempts futile. During one advanced training session in
which working drug dogs were given a chance to practice on real-world
busts, Charlie and some other similarly trained dogs were introduced to a
crate in which cocaine packages were surrounded by gallons of fish oil.
Deatherage said the load had been seized from smugglers in Canada and the
smell was overwhelming -- at least for humans.

"(Charlie) hit right on it," she said. "He didn't shy away from the stinky
fish smell."

To underscore his point about the power of a dog's nose, Helfers pointed
out his other training operations. Apart from narcotics detection, he
trains dogs to find accelerants for arson investigators and natural gas
leaks for safety inspectors. He even trained dogs to sniff out gypsy moth
egg cases and Japanese beetle larvae as a means of combating insect
infestation on the east coast.

"They can detect them very easily," Helfers said. "They're very smart dogs."

The retriever appeal

Helfers only trains retrievers -- labs and goldens. German shepherds, the
most easily recognizable type of police dog, are usually trained as "man"
dogs -- dogs that track and bring down suspects. Buddy, the Bremerton
police dog shot and killed in 2001, was a man dog. Most departments have
dogs which specialize -- Bremerton currently has three dogs: Rosco, the
narcotics dog; and K.G. and Tabor, the man dogs. However, dogs trained in
both types of police work do exist.

Deatherage said she has seen dual-trained dogs work, but has really only
been impressed by the detection skills of a few. The police dog for Little
Boston, for instance, is a dual-trained shepherd that Deatherage said is an
outstanding tracker, as well as being sufficiently intimidating.

"This was a big German shepherd," she said. "I wouldn't want him coming
after me if I was running through the woods."

The intimidation factor is one of the reasons Helfers never trains
shepherds. Apart from the fact retrievers were bred for detection work,
Helfers said, it doesn't hurt that retrievers have a much better public
image than shepherds and other types of police dogs. Few people, he
continued, are normally intimidated by the sight of a tail-wagging black lab.

"The labrador retrievers are better public relations tool," he said. The
public accepts them better. This is a friendly dog."

Deatherage would tend to agree. She said Charlie is so appealing to
passers-by, she has difficulty keeping people from trying to play with him
or feed him while he's in the back of her cruiser. While it's likely
Charlie enjoys the attention more than anything else, she said it's never a
good idea to offer your hand to a strange dog.

In addition, she has a strict policy about people trying to feed Charlie,
who isn't real selective about what he eats.

"I've come running out of restaurants before," Deatherage said, who also
said she can be harsh with adults who think it's a good idea to play with
Charlie when she's not around.

Deatherage said she's constantly aware of how vulnerable Charlie is. She
said it's her job to make sure he's not molested by people or other dogs
and to make sure his work environment is as safe as she can make it.
Because of that, Deatherage said she will never let Charlie anywhere near
meth lab sites -- the sites are often covered with unknown chemicals that
could kill Charlie if he inhaled or swallowed them.

"We've gotten into rat poison before, Deatherage said. "Luckily, I caught
it right away."

The agencies that ask for her help usually know which places are safe for
dogs and which aren't, Deatherage said. But that doesn't mean she hasn't
turned down search requests over safety concerns.

Deatherage said she and Charlie were once asked to search a truck which had
a suspected meth lab sitting on the truck bed. Deatherage took one look at
the site and wouldn't let Charlie near any part of it.

"I didn't even put the dog in the cab portion of the truck, because I don't
know what's been in there; I don't know what might have been spilled," she
said.

Charlie is more than just a work dog -- he is a permanent fixture in
Deatherage's life. Like most police dogs, he goes home with her at the end
of the day and does regular dog things -- peeling the coating off tennis
balls, destroying chew toys, distracting Deatherage while she's trying to
watch TV.

She keeps him away from her two rottweilers, though. Deatherage said police
dogs tend to have alpha personalities, and she doesn't want any problems
with territory disputes. However, the aggression that would cause problems
at home, Deatherage said, is what makes Charlie a top-notch drug dog.

"I actually like his attitude, because he's a lot like me," she said.
"There's a lot of me in him, which is why I think we get along so well."
"Passive, little dogs that don't want to go out and do anything are not for
me," Deatherage continued.

Charlie will probably have another four or so years as a working dog before
he retires. Like all animals, a dog's sense of smell deteriorates as it
gets older and it becomes less and less active.

When that happens, Deatherage said she is hopeful the department will buy
her another drug-sniffing dog. Charlie cost around $5,000 in 1999, and
Helfers said a similar dog would cost upwards of $6,500, not counting what
the department pays for Charlie's food and medical care. Therefore, it
might become a case of what the police department can afford to do, not
what it necessarily wants to do.

"That one's up to the boss," Deatherage said.

If Deatherage does get another dog, she said she'll probably want another
lab. Despite Charlie's quirks -- his penchant for barking incessantly is a
standing joke at the department -- Deatherage said she has come to rely on
his talents and appreciate his eccentricities. Of course, finding another
dog like Charlie could prove something of a challenge, she admits.

"I don't think there's another dog around that's like Charlie, that has his
personality," Deatherage said.