PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — We may think of dogs as our cuddly, furry friends, but some of them have serious jobs to do. And they’re not so different from human jobs.
Dr. Cynthia Otto, founder and Executive Director of the Penn Vet Working Dog Center, says that dogs basically go into the office there every day.
“We bring puppies in at eight weeks of age, and they come to school — come to work — every day, five days a week,” she says.
The puppies live with foster families and train at the center until they’re 12-18 months old. Then, they go on to jobs in search and rescue, law enforcement, or scientific research.
In early 2020, Penn Vet working dogs were part of a study to see if dogs could detect COVID-19. Spoiler alert: they can.
“Anytime our body changes, or we have an invasive infection…it seems like our body changes in the odor,” Dr. Otto explains. “We're not sensitive enough for the most part to pick this up…but our dogs are really good at it, especially if we train them.”
Dogs haven’t been deployed to sniff out COVID in real-life situations yet - Dr. Otto says the results of the study weren’t “quite perfect enough” - but canine graduates from the Working Dog Center are out all over the country and even in Canada, helping humans in a variety of ways.
Here’s what a couple of Penn dogs who stayed in the Philadelphia region are doing in their careers now.
Skiff
K-9 Skiff works for the Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office with his partner and owner, Corporal Trevor Keller, in the warrant division - and Skiff loves his job.
“He literally will shake until I allow him to do the job that he's there to do,” Keller says. “He's just so excited to work.”
Skiff gets excited because “work” for him is really play. When he catches a criminal or finds drugs, he gets rewarded with a toy.
Skiff is trained to bite and hold someone in place so that Keller can take them into custody, but only when it’s absolutely necessary.
“A lot of having the dog is deterrence,” Keller says. “We might get someone inside the house that just hears a dog and they surrender to us, come out, and that's a perfect situation.”
They also do a lot of demonstrations, especially at schools and summer camps.
“I think it's important for police in general just to really have community outreach,” Keller says. “It kind of shows that we are humans. We aren't just robots, we are people too.”
K-9 Skiff is also on Instagram as part of that effort. You can follow him @K9_Skiff.
Cassey
Cassey is a search and rescue dog with New Jersey Task Force 1, a FEMA and state resource that has been deployed for disasters like Hurricane Sandy and 9-11.
The task force K-9 team trains at Lakehurst Navy Base, where they’ve created a mock disaster site the size of a football field, complete with cars and a New Jersey Transit train buried in rubble.
The human members of the task force are all volunteers, including Cassey’s owner, Lori Stevens. She works 40 hours a week at an assisted living facility and trains with Cassey on nights and weekends.
“The joy is the connection with Cassey…that’s the motivation,” Stevens says, “and also to see him have joy when he's on the pile. He just loves what he does.”
Alice Holmes, the K-9 coordinator for NJTF1, feels that same joy and connection with her two dogs, Finn and Watson.
“I'm 66, so I've been doing this a long time, and I don't see me stopping,” Holmes says. “I only have a job so I can play. This is my playground.”
Learn more about all of these dogs and how the Penn Vet Working Dog Center trains them on The Jawncast, in the player below or wherever you listen to podcasts.