Waynesburg receives new police dog
WAYNESBURG – The Waynesburg Borough Police Department has a new police dog, thanks to the initiative of one of its Patrolmen, Asa Winters.
Izzy is a 3-year-old female German Shepherd that Winters received in March and has been training, with the help of other local police dog handlers, to aid in the department’s law enforcement efforts.
The dog is now being “eased into” its new position, but soon will be ready for active duty with the force.
“This will be a huge benefit to the department,” police Chief Robert Toth said. He gave all the credit to Winters, who has been training Izzy on his own time.
“Asa takes a lot of pride in his work,” Toth said. “It was he who took the initiative to buy the dog, train it and get it approved,” he said.
The dog has already been certified through the North American Police Work Dog Association in a number of areas of police work.
Izzy has been trained in tracking, narcotics detection, and article, area and building searches. With the training the dog has received so far. it will be able to assist officers in everything from a drug search of a vehicle or a home to the tracking of a missing person or a suspect of a crime.
Winters, who joined the police force in December 2010 after graduating from the police academy, said he has been interested in training a police dog since high school when he first saw a demonstration involving a police dog at a state police summer camp.
The interest took hold while he was at the police academy, he said. “Not only am I a dog lover, but I became interested in how a police dog works and what you can do with them,” he said.
Cumberland Township police Chief Craig Miller, who has a police dog, Artis, knew about Winters’ interest in being a handler and invited Winters to work with him and Masontown Borough patrolman Mike Yeager and his police dog, Brony.
Winters eventually obtained Izzy from Yeager, who had raised her from a pup. Izzy was found to have a “strong nose and a very high drive,” Winters said. Yeager had already begun training the dog in basic obedience, tracking and drug detection.
Miller and Yeager, as well as Waynesburg patrolman Brian Tennant, the borough’s current police dog handler, assisted Winters in his efforts to train Izzy. Tennant, who started the canine unit at the borough, is leaving the force in January to become sheriff and will be taking his dog, Dagen, to the sheriff’s office with him.
“They’ve really helped me a lot,” Winters said. “We train weekly, but I do a lot of training on my own, too.”
One of the important things he learned through the experience is “I needed twice the amount of training that my dog did,” Winters said.
A handler has to learn how to direct his dog, which responds to hand signals as well as oral commands, but he also has to learn how the dog will react in certain situations as, for example, when the dog detects drugs in a room, he said.
Izzy lives with Winters. The dog, he said, is not only a police dog but a pet.
Training is done almost on a daily basis, Winters said, and he is now working with Izzy on “aggression control,” which involves learning to handle people who show aggression toward the handler or others. “There’s always more they can learn,” Winters said.
To help support the borough’s canine unit, a fund has been started at First Federal Savings and Loan of Greene County. The fund will help pay for equipment as well as additional training not only for Izzy but for other dogs that may eventually join the unit, Winters said.