WARNER ROBINS, Ga. — Dogs are our cute furry friends, but when working alongside law enforcement, they are crime fighters.
This week, agencies from as far as Mexico came to Warner Robins to get canine training and compete in a competition.
Deputy Matthew Salter works for the K-9 unit for Houston County Sheriff's Office. He says he and his dog get certified through the National Narcotics Detector Dog Association.
Salter and his dog, Hector, are trained to work with narcotics and tracking. Hector uses his nose to sniff out what Salter can't like meth, heroin, marijuana and cocaine.
When dogs locate contraband, it gives officers probable cause to search homes or vehicles for drugs.
"What we can do is pinpoint that, and get these illegal narcotics off the street that's killing families, killing people, breaking families apart," Salter said.
Depending on a dog's training, they are also able to search for explosives and weapons.
At the end of each teams week of training through the NNDDA, they got to have some fun through a K-9 competition. Each team competes to see who can move to find the most amount of narcotics in a three-minute time.
This fun is put to good use. Since their start six months ago, Hector and Salter, have seen a lot of action.
"We've got 32 felony drug cases," he shared.
During canines' 30 days of standard training, they learn to track people.
"A big thing that we've done too, is assisted the Warner Robins Police Department in locating a double homicide suspect. We did a mile-and-a-half track and located the suspect at the very end of it," Salter said.
The dogs are not just heroes, they're also an officer's best friend.
"The bond that we build with each other is fantastic. You always have a friend in the car with you," Salter said.
Canines often come from overseas and their partners give them commands in a foreign language to keep discretion.
Canines are typically German Shepherds or Belgian Malinois'.
The dogs can be costly, running about $15,000. Across Houston County's four agencies, there are about 17 canine teams.