When Goose is working, he wants one thing — his ball.
To get his ball, which is tucked into the pocket of K-9 handler Travis Thorson’s cargo pants, Goose has to do one job: “Seek dope.”
The 2-year-old Labrador retriever has worked as the Hennepin County jail’s first drug dog for about a year. Already, Goose has sniffed out plenty of contraband, proving he’s a valuable addition to the effort to keep dangerous narcotics out of the jail.
“He’s 100 percent ball-driven,” Thorson explained of Goose’s training on a recent December morning. Goose, Thorson and Hunter Coil, the jail’s intelligence officer, were about to search a holding cell, where a dozen inmates who had not yet made their initial court appearance were being held.
After the prisoners had been moved out of the room, Thorson gave the command: “Goose, seek dope.”
Without hesitation, he sprang into action. Goose flew around the room like a canine whirlwind, nosing into beds, blankets, books and personal items.
K-9 handler Travis Thorson, right, with Goose and jail intelligence officer Hunter Coil work a morning search in one of the holding cells at the Hennepin County jail in Minneapolis in December. (Elizabeth Flores/The Minnesota Star Tribune)
Within seconds, he proudly sat down; Goose had found something. In this instance, it wasn’t contraband, but a cotton ball that had been adjacent to some drugs, which Coil and Thorson use to keep Goose’s detection skills sharp.
Then out came his ball. Goose was darting around the room again, overjoyed.
Source link https://www.startribune.com/hennepin-county-jail-drug-sniffing-dog-goose/601204543
