A new furry member joins the Force

Saratogans may have noticed the big-eared-fluffy-four-pawed member of the police force patrolling the streets alongside Officer Casey Lehr.

Argus, who turns three in February, was approved to join the Police Department by the Saratoga Town Council earlier this month.

Finding and training Argus

It took Lehr awhile just to find Argus.

“You can’t just find any dog off the street to do police work,” he said.

There are three main breeds for Police work – German shepherds, Dutch shepherds and Belgian malinois. Lehr found Argus at the end of June. He didn’t start practicing with Argus immediately because he was unsure of where he’d want to complete the training.

Argus is Officer Lehr’s second dog. With his first dog, Lehr went through a six-week canine training in Colorado Springs learning narcotics detection, patrolling and gained a working knowledge of how to train dogs.

Lehr decided to train Argus himself. It took approximately a month-and-a-half from getting Argus scent imprinted to becoming fully certified, he said.

In order for Argus to become trained in narcotic detection, Lehr had to imprint him with the proper scents he’d be looking for.

“I always have a friend with me, especially on long nights."

Imprinting is the foundation of detection work for dogs. Using scents, toys and reward reinforcement – Argus became adapted to searching for target narcotics like cocaine, heroin and fentanyl.

“I imprinted Argus myself here in town,” Lehr said. “I had a bunch of rags soaked with different odors and narcotics that I wanted him to alert me to, put them into wiffle balls, put the balls out in a field and let Argus work toward the balls. He was finding his reward while looking for the different odors I wanted him to look for.”

Argus took to the training quickly, Lehr said. Once training was complete, Lehr took Argus down to Colorado Springs to get the proper certifications in November.

Argus was given different scenarios, in buildings and cars, and a time limit to find hidden narcotics.

“With the certification we did,” Lehr said. “There were five rooms, three had hides and two did not. We had to go through, figure out which rooms actually had different narcotics and where it was in those rooms. Then we had four cars, two had hides and two didn’t.”

A professional but still a good boy

Argus loves to work. He starts spinning in his kennel, when he sees a new building and all his training aids come out.

Having a K9 makes things a lot easier for the department, Lehr said, especially with illicit drugs that are coming through the town.

“Having a dog is phenomenal,” Lehr said. “Their sense of smell is 10,000 to 20,000 times stronger than a human being. What we can kind of smell, they’re able to smell a lot easier.”

When Argus isn’t working, he's a sweetheart, according to Lehr.

“Especially around me, he’s the biggest baby,” Lehr said. “I squat down and he’ll climb up into my lap. But as soon as through his harness on, he’s in straight up work mode.”

For Lehr, his favorite part of being a K9 officer is always having a partner.

“I always have a friend with me, especially on long nights,” he said. “ I usually keep the door between us closed, but there’s times I’ll open it and he’ll try to climb or his favorite thing lately is shoving his head down the front of my vest and just sitting there. I love having someone with me.”