K-9 unit handlers train dog partners for detection, apprehension at Cobb County water park

Police officers from specialized K-9 units in Conyers, Marietta and Cobb County gathered with their dogs at a water park in Marietta from May 12 to May 14 for training in Adaptive K-9 Deployment Strategies from Spike’s K9 Fund.

The intensive, three-day training workshop was designed for law enforcement and working canine teams to focus on real-world deployment challenges, helping handlers identify common failures, improve communication with their canines, and make critical decisions under high-stress conditions.

Bo Poole with the Cobb County Police Department played the bad guy or the decoy during part of the training.

“You wear the bite suit, you get the dog amped up, you learn how to catch the dog and where he can bite you without hurting himself and hurting you,” Poole said. “And then how to engage with him to kind of make it fun for him while you’re playing, keeping him in contact with you.”

To the dogs, it’s a game. But for the law enforcement officers, the experience could mean the difference between life or death.

“They run through different scenarios, car crashes, smoke, bangs, loud noises and we essentially dress up as our bad guys and we hide from them,” Cobb County Police officer Antonio Stewart said.

As Stewart climbed out of his bite suit, he said he aspires to be part of the K-9 unit.

“So, obviously, to get to that step you got to be able to take bites from dogs, different dogs,” he said.

The dogs training at the water park were narcotics and apprehension dogs, who patrol with their handlers.

“They can get anything from a narcotics sniff to finding drugs in a vehicle or a locker or a school or anything like that, to essentially getting out and chasing a bad guy down and apprehending them,” Stewart said. “Bomb dogs are kind of separate from that because they’re strictly tasked with sniffing out things that go boom so they’re more tasked with the Braves stadium, big warehouses or businesses.”