State Patrol demonstrate use of canines

Canine program relatively new to area

PHOTOS: 1. Children surround Washington State Patrol canine handler Greg Monroe and Winnie after their demonstration Saturday morning at Basin Feed and Supply.

2. Washington State Patrol canine handler Greg Monroe grins and asks a child if he thinks Winnie is big after their demonstration Saturday morning at Basin Feed and Supply. The answer was a nod.

3. Winnie grabs on to the ball held by Washington State Patrol canine handler Greg Monroe during their demonstration of the WSP canine program Saturday morning at Basin Feed and Supply.

4. Winnie grabs on to the ball held by Washington State Patrol canine handler Greg Monroe during their demonstration of the WSP canine program Saturday morning at Basin Feed and Supply.

5. Washington State Patrol canine handler Greg Monroe sends the ball used in training Winnie flying for her to retrieve during their demonstration of the WSP canine program Saturday morning at Basin Feed and Supply.

6. Washington State Patrol canine handler Greg Monroe, with Winnie, makes a point during the initial question-and-answer portion of a demonstration of the WSP canine program Saturday morning at Basin Feed and Supply.

Basin Feed and Supply was going to the dogs on Saturday.

But in a good way.

At 10 a.m., the business establishment was the site of a Washington State Patrol demonstration of its canine program, first implemented in the Columbia Basin in September 2003.

A People and Their Amazing Animals contest followed the demonstration.

"It's a way to expose the State Patrol canine to the area," said WSP canine handler Greg Monroe, demonstrating with Winnie, who he trained as a dog brand new to narcotics training when the State Patrol got her, at the age of two. "As far as the Basin is concerned, it is a new program."

"The State Patrol has had a canine program for several years," said Kurt Adkinson, sergeant of the Moses Lake detachment of the WSP. "(Bringing the program to the Basin is) just expanding the program throughout the state, expanding into eastern Washington."

Adkinson said one of the reason Monroe ended up a canine handler is that he was active in drug enforcement as a line trooper.

"It's been good; he's used a lot by other agencies in the area, so it's really been beneficial to the whole law enforcement community, not just the State Patrol," Adkinson said.

Training of Winnie took three months at an hour a day, Monroe said.

"We graduated from the State Patrol academy as a team September of last year, and we've been working on the road ever since," said Monroe, a 15-year resident of the Basin. He said people are possibly amused by Winnie's "crazy personality."

"She's not calm, she's ball driven mad," he said. "And I think people are surprised at her aggressiveness for the ball. They're surprised at her abilities to find the stuff."

Winnie's allegiance is to whoever is holding the green tennis ball that Monroe used in training, he said.

"As far as protective, she's getting that way," he said. "I was in a little scuffle maybe a week ago in Othello, and she was not able to get out of the car. Probably just as well, because she was in the back, just clawing at the door, clawing at the shield, trying to get out and the whole car was rocking."

Monroe said demonstrations show that while the State Patrol's main core missions are traffic safety, relating to speed and seat belt enforcement, there are many facets to the organization.

"Another part of it is we've been given a tool to help us in narcotic interdiction, or criminal interdiction," he said. "It also exposes to the other agencies that are in the area a tool that's available to them as well."

For the demonstration, such training aids as tar heroin, cocaine, methamphetamine and a marijuana pipe were hidden amongst the items in the Basin Feed and Supply storage.

"When I work the dog through a scenario like that, you find out what her limitations are, and what her abilities are," Monroe said. "The dog is not perfect. Mistakes that are perceived that the dog has made is usually not the dog; it's the handler failing to read a cue from the dog or something like that. The dog is nothing more than a tool, so we are not out here to profile drug dealers or anything like that. All she is is a tool to help me accomplish my task. As a canine handler, I do the same duties as any other line trooper, but I've been given a tool to help me accomplish another facet of the job."

Monroe said that the WSP is looking for 40 bomb dogs as part of a mandate from homeland security.

"IF anybody has a dog that they want to give away that has the right personality, we are greatly interested," he said.

Roy and Kathy Turner showed up at the demonstration with their grandchildren.

"We're dog owners," Roy Turner said of their reasons for attending. "(The demonstration) was on the TV, and it looked like something interesting. I thought it was pretty good."

"I wanted my grandchildren to see how the police work with the dogs, and not to be scared of them, that they're actually friendly," Kathy Turner said. "That's about the biggest reason I came out here, because we have dogs of our own, and the grandchildren have been trying to train them with hula hoops. So that's really what brought me out, was the kids. It was very good."

"We're interested in seeing how animals perform, and just sharing this with my daughter," said Susan Gear, present with daughter Gracie. "My husband trains border collies, so there is a connection between dogs and working dogs … Also from an educational standpoint, that little people understand that dogs are used in a variety of ways, and that's another way that we use dogs. I thought (the presentation) was awesome, I learned a lot and (Gracie) was asking me questions while we were watching, so she's learned a lot."