Book offers look into the world of K-9 cops

Rachel Rose is one of Canada’s most acclaimed poets. In 2016 she was a finalist for the Governor’s General Award, the Canadian equivalent of the National Book Award in the United States. She has twice been awarded a prestigious Pushcart Prize for small press publications. And she just finished a term as the Poet Laureate for city of Vancouver, B.C.

But five years ago she found herself curiously compelled to embark on a quest that is a far cry from the safe and solitary work of a literary writer.

Rose found herself nose to nose with an 80-pound black dog named Cade, lunging at her, frothing for a bite. She spent a day in the underground warren beneath the Hippodrome horse racing arena in Paris, France, on an anti-terrorist training exercise with a team of muzzled police dogs, one, a Tervuren Belgian shepherd named Maxou who charged her chest “like a cannonball.”

Rose traveled to law enforcement departments in four countries over several years to better understand the world of police dogs and their handlers. Her journey of discovery took her from the Royal Canadian Mounted Police in Alberta, to the Metropolitan Police Service in London, England, to the Sonoma County Jail in Santa Rosa to hang out with the jail’s nosy narcotics sniffer, Sasha, and her partner, Deputy John Cilia.

“It was a total departure for me, and really unexpected. But curiosity led me to follow the dogs. I’ve always been fascinated by that animal/human bond,” said Rose. “I heard about police dogs and what they were capable of and I was totally intrigued.”

She shares her experiences and discoveries in a new book, “The Dog Lover Unit: Lessons in Courage from the World’s K9 Cops,” published by Thomas Dunne Books, an imprint of St. Martin’s Press. Rose was not content to just interview. She suited up in padded gear covered in heavy jute and became the quarry of police dogs in training more than once, and she rode along during heart-thumping high speed chases. She was there for the funeral of Constable Dave Ross, whose bewildered and grieving K9 partner Danny followed his coffin, hoping to find his master. And she observed as men and dogs together captured criminals.

“I definitely felt the fear. And I got to experience a little bit of what the force of the dog is like coming at you - how strong they are and how incredibly powerful they are and how well-trained they are,” she said of her experience serving as the quarry during the training exercises she took part in.

Rose, a mother of three ages 9 to 14, was going through a few personal issues at the time. Entering the dangerous world of canine assisted police work, she said, served as “shock therapy.”

“I was in a little bit of a rut myself. Taking care of small kids, my world had become small, so the opportunity to have an adventure and be a part of a world I would never ever belong to,” she said, “was very appealing.”

She came to see how profoundly different the police work can be between the U.S. and London, where few officers - and few criminals - carry guns.

“They have a different way of interacting with the public when they don’t have that fear or that awareness that shooting may be an option. Again and again they said they really wouldn’t wish to have arms if they could,” she said. “They’re glad to have things the way they are.”

In the U.S. police use almost exclusively Belgian and German shepherds. But in London, Rose said, they also use English spaniels.

“They have cars equipped with a shepherd on one side and a spaniel on the other,” which they deploy depending on the situation. In Paris, they use rescue dogs almost entirely, many Belgian Malinois mixes.

Rose, 47, has dual citizenship. Her parents fled to Canada during the Vietnam War. It was through friends of relatives in Santa Rosa that she came to include the Sonoma County Sheriff’s Office in her broad look at canine police work. She was introduced first to Deputy Greg Piccinini, formerly worked the K9 Unit with a dog cop named Yakk who recently gave up the canine beat and set her up with John Cilia, who works at the Main Adult Detention Center with his short-haired Belgian Malinois, Sasha.

Sasha is trained to sniff out heroin, cocaine, meth, marijuana, tobacco and pruno, a jail-made alcohol.

It may not seem like a hazardous assignment for a police dog, working with criminals who already are incarcerated. But Sasha almost died on the job after finding a stash of liquid heroin under some papers. It splashed her on the nose and mouth, potentially fatal to a dog. She was rushed Code 3 to the vet and survived, but tests found that the heroin was laced with methamphetamines.

“She’s found all kinds of narcotics,” Cilia said. “People think, oh, it’s just marijuana. Marijuana still cannot be in the jail and it carries a felony charge. And if you bring it into the jail it becomes a bigger problem than people realize, because there are debts that need to be paid.” Marijuana becomes a valuable currency behind bars and those debts and grudges can lead to assaults and possibly stabbings, he added.

It’s not that common in California for jails to have their own canine deputies. Sasha was the first dog specifically trained and detailed to the Sonoma County Jail, starting in 2011. Cilia applied to the K9 unit in 2014, requiring an initial training of 200 hours.

Cilia said the county has about 10 dogs and they all train together.

Having a police dog is a large responsibility. The dog lives with his human deputy partner and they become out of necessity, inseparable.

Cilia said Sasha is part of his family, and goes along on walks. She’s well cared for, he explained. She has a dog run and gets to run around the back yard in the summer, hanging out with the family and playing.

But she’s not pampered like a house pet. She sleeps in a kennel in the garage, and not in the house, lest, as she gets older, she gets too lazy and comfortable snoozing on the floor to perk up for work. Cilia explained.

“I want to get the best out of her that I possibly can,” he said. “She’s with me wherever I go. I’m with Sasha more than anybody else. When I first got her, the bond happened pretty quickly. If you can’t trust your canine, the two shouldn’t be partners. You have to be able to have 110 percent trust in your dog.”

Rose was impressed with how accommodating the Sonoma County Sheriff’s Office was, giving her a close-up view not only inside the jail, but the chance to observe a training and to ride along on the night beat with another deputy and his canine partner.

Among the things she learned during her years researching the book, is that while law enforcement can be very different depending on the department, the state or the country, the type of officers attracted to “K9” work have much in common no matter where they do their work.

“This work attracts a kind of person who loves dogs, who loves to be on the go, is super high-energy, allergic to paperwork and really can’t sit still,” she said.

“They are people who have a willingness to enter dangerous situations where a lot of us would run screaming the other way.”

You can reach Staff Writer Meg McConahey at meg.mcconahey@pressdemocrat.com or 707-521-5204.