BOARDMAN Memorial to honor police dogs

The department got its first dog in 1991 and has had nine since then.
BOARDMAN -- The last donation has come in for a memorial honoring fallen four-legged officers of the Boardman Police Department.
The stone memorial, which will bear the names of the dogs of the K-9 program and their years of service, will likely be placed in front of the police building.
"We take a lot of pride in our dogs," said Officer Dean Lysowski, K-9 program coordinator.
The department got its first dog in 1991 and has had nine since then.
As the dogs died, the officers buried the ashes behind the department, marking them with rocks. That began to look unattractive as the number increased.
The stone memorial will honor the dogs and be an attraction for school children who visit the department.
"Children always want to see the dogs and there isn't always one here for them to see," Lysowski said.
The memorial received a $200 donation from Boardman Center Middle School, which put it over the top of the $1,500 goal. All of the money came from donations.
The stone will bear names of the department's four deceased dogs, Archie, Dino, Dicker and Rookie.
Extensive training
A plaque with a photograph of Dicker, Lysowski's first dog, hangs above his desk, a gift from one of his co-workers when the dog died a few years ago.
His second dog, Breston, has retired but lives with Lysowski and his family. Five or six years is usually the longest a dog can work with a department because the work is so demanding.
Lysowski has also gone to school to evaluate dogs on their fitness as officers and books and literature about K-9 training fill his office.
Lysowski was a K-9 handler from 1991 until 2003, becoming K-9 coordinator in 1995. He misses it sometimes but says it's a younger officer's job.
"That was probably the highlight of my police career -- I just started my 28th year -- when I was a K-9 handler," he said.
The dogs are rigorously tested before being sent to a police department, and at Boardman they undergo training with their handlers two times a month.
If a dog is going to make a mistake, Lysowski wants it to make it in training.
That way, he, the handler and the dog can work to correct it.
The cost is about $8,000 per dog; with training for the officer it tops about $12,000.
Many uses
Boardman's K-9s serve dual purposes, finding narcotics and patrol. Patrol includes tracking, building and article searches and sometimes pursuits.
Several years ago, Lysowski determined there was a way to get even more use from the dogs.
Because a dog is only called upon under certain circumstances, the canine cops were spending a lot of time in the cruiser.
"It's well known that dogs deter crime," the officer said.
He contacts business owners and gets permission for the dogs and their human partners to patrol parking lots in shopping centers and at motels.
Those sites are identified by the department's crime analyst as places where crime is likely to occur, Lysowski said.
Those patrols allow the handlers to meet people, provide additional socialization for the dogs and deter those who may be up to no good.
"The dog isn't just sitting in the car and the residents are getting their money's worth," he said.