Meet Officer Allen and his handler, Norfolk-Southern RR Security Officer Tyler Holland. They were special guests at this month's Crime Watch Committee meeting last Thursday at Village Hall. This $22,000 dog came from Czechoslovakia and is a mixed German Shepherd-Malinios. Malinios sounded like mal-a-mar to me.Eighteen month old Officer Allen has been teamed up with Holland for 11 months now. They first got together with an initial 900 hours of training. Being an alpha male dog Officer Holland related it took 600 hours for Allen to begin liking him. Once it was decided who the boss is the training went smoothly with sessions lasting anywhere from eight to 12 hours per day. Now he is a very protective of his partner.
Officer Allen's specialty is bomb sniffing but his list of talents go much farther than that. He is a multi-purpose dog. With his super sensitive nose he can track anything until the trail runs out. He can detect skin cells that are constantly being shed by a human. He can sniff out drugs just about anywhere. He can find someone hiding. He can read body language and if Holland is threatened he'll latch onto the offender, holding on until given the command to let go.
Demonstrating with the assistance of WPD Officer Shawn Bloor Holland showed how he can pick up the dog by the tail without letting loose. If he is sniffing out something he sits next to it once it is located telling Holland it's there. He's a ball driven dog and getting a toy ball is his reward for doing good. Holland said Allen loves to retrieve the ball and will play 36 hours a day if he could.
The training didn't stop with the first 900 hours. Holland runs Allen through the paces everyday. Once a month they travel to Harrisburg, PA, for 16 hours of refresher training. One day is spent training on patrolling and one on explosives. Once a year they are tested for renewal of their certification. Out of 13 dogs in his first training group Officer Allen graduated first in his class. Being a slightly smaller dog he is extremely agile and is able to leap over cars or through a window that larger dogs can't make.
Officer Allen & Holland travel in a special equipped SUV and work out of the Greensberg office of Norfolk-Southern. They cover anything from Pittsburgh to Morgantown, WV, and all points in between. Allen has no problem walking on a train trestle with the open spaces between the railway ties. Home is in Jefferson County and they have been selected to work as part of the security detail for the G-20 Summit of world leaders in Pittsburgh later this month. Holland said they often lend a hand to other community law enforcement agencies. It was an amazing demonstration.
In other business Chairman Janet Taggart announced that anyone wanting to participate in the "orange hand" safe house program for area children should contact the Wellsville Police Dept. at 330-532-1522. Once a background check is done participants will be contacted to get a bright orange hand to be displayed in a window.
Next month meetings will go back to the third Thursday of the month. Next scheduled meeting is October 15 at 6 P.M. at Village Hall.
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