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New Boardman K-9 officer begins intense training
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Boardman patrolman Brian Cionni, who will be Eros’ handler, is attending a six-week training session at Shallow Creek Kennels Inc. Cionni also was the handler for retired police dog Robby.
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The Vindicator | William D. Lewis Eros, a Belgian malinois, subdues Martin Kreeft, a member of the Royal Dutch Police Dog Association, during training at Shallow Creek Kennels Inc. in Sharpsville, Pa. Eros will be on patrol with Boardman police officers by mid-October.
By Ashley Luthern
Like a sculptor looking at a lump of clay, John Brannon looks at a dog and sees potential.
Brannon molds German shepherds, Belgian malinois and Dutch shepherds into police and military dogs at Shallow Creek Kennels Inc. in Sharpsville, Pa., about 40 miles from Youngstown.
Valley law-enforcement agencies, including Struthers and Austintown police, are taking advantage of Brannon’s selection and training processes. Canfield and Boardman police are in the middle of training, as is the Mahoning County Sheriff’s Department.
Brannon looks for dogs that are healthy, show confidence and are social. He brings them to the kennel, which can house about 50 dogs on the 40-acre complex, and then matches them with a handler. After training, the dog should be like a “light switch,” Brannon said.
“The dog should be aggressive when his handler tells him to be, and should immediately stop when he’s told,” he said.
On Thursday, Brannon and his team practiced this skill with Eros, a Belgian malinois, who is the newest addition to the Boardman police force.
Martin Kreeft, a member of the Royal Dutch Police Dog Association who finds suitable dogs for Brannon in Europe, climbed into a 30-pound “bite suit” made of French linen and jute.
When given the Dutch command, Eros, who is from the Netherlands, attacked Kreeft and bit him in the shoulder area. The dogs are trained to bite that location because there are not many veins and nerves.
“I get bruised sometimes,” Kreeft admitted.
As soon as Boardman Officer Brian Cionni gave the command, the 68-pound dog stopped biting Kreeft.
Eros practiced sniffing out narcotics Thursday. In a wall that resembled a Whac-a-Mole game, Cionni led Eros on a guided search for narcotics. Upon finding it, Eros barked and was rewarded with a toy that slipped out of one of the holes.
“Dogs, like mother nature, need the real thing. They aren’t fooled,” Brannon said of using real narcotics in training. “On the streets, the dog will think the criminal has a toy when they catch the scent of narcotics.”
Brannon said one of his graduates recently found a $125,000 of heroin in a routine search of bus luggage in Pittsburgh.
Cionni and Eros should be patrolling Boardman streets by the middle of October, after they graduate from training. Cionni said support from the public for the new police dog, who takes the place of retired police dog Robby, has been tremendous.
It costs about $11,000 to buy and train a new police dog, Cionni said.
That amount was taken out of the Law Enforcement Trust Fund by township trustees at an Aug. 9 meeting and replaced with money from a private donation drive.
The police department is still accepting donations to be used for equipping a cruiser with a kennel.
For more information, call 330-726-4144.