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King of the Highway

Subhead
New Minnesota State Patrol drug dog joing Marshall district, lives in Luverne community
Lead Summary
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By
Lori Sorenson

The newest addition to local law enforcement weighs 40 pounds, speaks Dutch, and loves his job.
King is a 1½-year-old German shorthair pointer who works with Minnesota State Patrol Trooper Austin Christensen, Luverne.
“When it’s time to work, he can’t wait to get in the squad,” Christensen said. “He thinks work is playtime; he loves to go to work.”
King and two other new State Patrol canines came from Hungary, where the dogs are trained to understand commands spoken in Dutch.
This means they won’t be easily distracted by others giving English commands.
Sgt. Chad Mills, canine coordinator for the Minnesota State Patrol, traveled to Pennsylvania to select the dogs from a total field of 22.
He said King stood out among his peers. “King had one of the highest scores on the selection test,” Mills said.
This involves testing the dogs’ perseverance when hunting for objects, level of hunt, prey drive, air scenting abilities and level of confidence on elevated areas, unstable surfaces and in various environments.
“King was not distracted at all when searching for an object, staying 100-percent focused on the hunt,” Mills said. “King’s energy level was also very appealing to us.”
He said the Europeans have strict breeding standards, much higher than the United States, which makes it easier to find dogs with the drive needed for police work, such as hunt and air scenting abilities.
Christensen said these breeding traits also mean they demand extra attention from their human companions.
“They have more drive and more energy, which also means they’re more willing to work,” he said.
“He’s very focused when you give him the command to hunt for drugs. He won’t quit until he sources the smell. He’ll go into what we call a ‘quick sit’ and stare at the source of the odor.”
Given the choice between food and toys, good drug dogs often choose play, which is what they think they’re doing when they’re sniffing for drugs.
The Minnesota State Patrol now has 15 canine teams trained to detect narcotics and one team trained to detect explosives.
Some assist with apprehending suspects, but King is trained only as a drug dog — he isn’t trained to bite or detain people.
“He’s good with kids and he gets along with other dogs,” said Christensen, who also has a female border collie at home. “He’s a pet at home, and work is a game to him.”
He said King spends 10 hours a day with him in the State Patrol SUV, and if a drug sniff isn’t required, they'll take a break from the road to get some training exercise.
In addition to working with King at home and on patrol, Christensen attends monthly canine training and works monthly canine saturations with other agencies.
“It’s a lot of work, but I grew up with German shorthair pointers, and I’m used to training them for pheasant hunting,” he said. “Instead of hunting pheasants, we’re hunting drugs.”
Since King started working with Christensen in June, they’ve assisted with several felony-level narcotics arrests, mostly on the interstate and state highways.
Christensen said a good share of narcotics seizures result from regular roadside traffic stops. King gets called to action if the driver or passengers behave suspiciously.
He is trained to alert for four basic controlled substances — meth, cocaine, marijuana and heroine — and their derivatives.
According to Mills, King is the first State Patrol canine in 10 years to work in the Marshall District, which encompasses 13 southwest Minnesota counties.
“We’re pretty excited to get one down there,” Mills said. “We now have two dogs on I-90 — by Luverne and by Rochester — so we have one on each side of the state. We hope to get a third one soon.”
Rock County hasn’t had a law enforcement dog for five years, and Christensen said he’s been introducing King to the community.
For example, he’s reached out to local school administrators.
“They’ll let us do some training in the school, and we’ll help out if they need us for locker searches,” he said.
Sheriff Evan Verbrugge said he’s glad to have the canine team in Rock County.
“Any time you have a drug dog in your area, those who deal drugs will know it,” Verbrugge said. “And that will benefit all of Rock County.”
From January through June this year, drug dogs have helped troopers seize 1,150 pounds of marijuana, 116 pounds of meth, 17.5 pounds of cocaine and 13.5 pounds of heroin.
This included searches of 353 vehicles, 20 residences, five schools and two parcels.

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