Sean C. Morgan
The Sweet Home Police Department has a new four-legged member to help in its fight against the illegal drug trade.
Officer Sasha McDonald is training a new police dog to detect heroin, cocaine and methamphetamine.
The dog, Gemma, is a 3-year-old Belgian Malinois, McDonald said. She originally came from Holland as a puppy to a kennel in California.
The Oregon State Police purchased Gemma and another dog but didn’t like some of her qualities and rehomed her to a corrections deputy, McDonald said. Gemma is an extremely active dog with a lot of energy, which makes her a challenging pet but will make her a good drug-sniffing dog.
The deputy gave the dog in May to McDonald, who had hoped to begin a canine program when she was hired at SHPD.
McDonald had another dog that “didn’t work out because he didn’t have the toy drive at all.”
The dogs are tested for their drive, McDonald said. A favorite toy is hidden in a field, and the focus they display in hunting for it indicates their level of drive. Gemma has a strong drive.
She fixates on a small ball and rope toy, and McDonald has to buy something like eight of them per month. Using the toy, she is able to control Gemma.
She put her proposal in front of Chief Jeff Lynn in August.
“Chief was well aware I wanted to start a canine program,” McDonald said. “I was finally able to convince him of the benefit for having a canine.”
She worked on her own time to attend conferences and training sessions, McDonald said.
“I wanted to do a canine program because I couldn’t help citizens with the drug problem here in Sweet Home,” she said. Officers constantly pick up needles found by citizens, and property crimes, the most common in Sweet Home, are driven by drug addicts feeding their habits.
“I know dogs are a huge benefit for us to use as a tool to get drugs off the streets,” McDonald said. She hopes Gemma will help deter illegal drug activity.
It won’t fix everything, Lynn said, but it will be another tool for the department.
The department could use a patrol dog, McDonald said. The U.S. Forest Service often assists SHPD with its canine unit when local police need a dog for tracking or a high-risk warrant.
But the liability for a patrol dog is higher, McDonald said.
Gemma will pull double duty anyway, attending community events and serving as a public relations tool.
“She’ll be with me every day when I’m on duty when she’s certified,” McDonald said. She hopes the dog will pass her certification tests in April. She started training Gemma about a month ago.
Oregon certification is the highest in the country, McDonald said. The dog must have 100 percent accuracy finding targets in the test and it can have no false alerts. Tests are conducted in a field and then in rooms and cars.
The program is funded primarily by donations, McDonald said. The initial cost is approximately $27,000 and will cost about $4,700 annually. She will seek donations and grants to continue funding it.
The majority of the cost is a vehicle, and Deschutes County Sheriff’s Office has donated a used vehicle to Sweet Home.
Lynn said the city should get three years of use out of the vehicle.
McDonald said the active and agile Belgian Malinois is a popular police dog in both detection and for patrol.
“You’ll see a variety in the detector dog work,” she said. Her training classes includes the German shepherd, an English collie and Rhodesian Ridgeback. Springer spaniels also are popular.
Patrol dogs tend to be limited to the Belgian Malinois and German shepherd.
“Sasha’s put a tremendous amount of work into it,” Lynn said. “We’re excited about it.”