Aberdeen police dog sniffs out drugs better than any other K-9 in the state
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IDAHO FALLS — It took police K-9 Gunner under 20 seconds to find marijuana hidden in a bag near a park tree. This focus, speed and proper drug identification led him to his title of best narcotics dog in Idaho.
“Even on your days off, you’re spending your time training the dog, putting narcotics out and training,” Gunner’s handler, Cpl. Zach Monahan says.
Monahan, who has been with the Aberdeen Police Department for four years, has had the 3-year-old yellow Labrador for one.
Previous trainers thought he was a problem dog, but when Monahan got him, that wasn’t the case.
“He was a throwaway dog that turned out to be the best throwaway dog I’ve seen,” Monahan says.
Monahan says Gunner is just the right fit for their department, and he’s living his dream as a K-9 officer.
For the last two years, Monahan has attended the annual Idaho Police Canine Association Conference. This was Gunner’s first year participating. The event’s purpose is to help improve K-9s and their handlers, “so that the state of Idaho is better prepared to handle the situations that we’re going to get put into as officers and K-9s,” Monahan says.
Various drug detection training and testing scenarios take place during the conference. Though it wasn’t a formal competition, Gunner went head-to-head with 26 narcotics dogs from Idaho, Washington, and Oregon. The animals were tested to see how fast they could identify and find various drug odors.
“If (the dogs) did it the fastest and indicated on the proper odor, then that’s how they base the winner is the fastest, and most correct,” Monahan says.
The dogs also can’t give false alerts.
“They’ll also put out some distracters,” Monahan says. “The distracters could be food, rubber gloves, bombs because there are bomb dogs.”
Gunner’s times and accuracy for finding planted drugs ranked the highest in the competition overall. At the conference, all of the dogs maneuvered through three tests. Monahan says Gunner is conditioned to find marijuana, meth, cocaine and heroin.
“They set you up to fail, and thankfully my dog just didn’t fail,” Monahan says.
Monahan received a personal award for his time and dedication to training Gunner.
“I’ve seen the drive that Gunner has and the dedication that Cpl. Monahan has, and I really wasn’t too surprised,” Aberdeen Police Chief Chuck Carroll says. “As far as taking the overall title for drug detection, it’s a very good accomplishment. We’re pretty proud of them here in Aberdeen.”
The conference wasn’t the only place Gunner had been successful, as the canine has already been pulling drugs off the streets.
Monahan and Carroll thank the Aberdeen Community, Bingham County and those in the surrounding area for their help in raising enough funds to have a K-9 program at the police department.
“I just want the public to know that we really appreciate their effort. Without the community and Bingham County, the K-9 program wouldn’t have been possible,” Monahan says.