BELLA VISTA -- Spectators at the 2022 Wiener vs. Corgi Races on Oct. 1 were treated to a demonstration by the Bella Vista Police Department's K-9 Division.
"I think this is one of the primary roles of the K-9 Division," Cpl. Matt Hixson said. "Not everybody likes cops, but everybody loves dogs. Obviously our dogs are used as a tool, just like anything else that we use on patrol -- our car, our gun, or flashlight or whatever -- and they're used to find drugs or find people, but at the same time, we're doing that only a small fraction of the time. Most of the time our dogs are used for public relations and for reaching out to the public at events like this. This is a great event to get them out and get them seen and to bring awareness to what they do and can do."
Hixson works with canine officer Huk. During the demonstration the crowd got to see Huk help "subdue" patrol officer Tim Butler, who was wearing a large pad on his arm.
The department will soon have three canine officers in its division. Huk and Rip, who is handled by officer Michael Jaro, will soon be joined by Niko, who is handled by officer Nick Collins. Niko and Collins are currently finishing up a four-week training session in North Carolina.
"They'll be back next week and hopefully on the streets shortly thereafter," said Hixson, who is a supervisor on the evening shift and leads the K-9 Division.
All three dogs are Belgian Malinois and imported from Poland. Hixson said the handlers learn Polish commands to be able to better communicate with the dogs and to keep "the bad guys from giving commands to the dogs."
The dogs are also trained to sniff out narcotics and to do tracking as well.
While the dogs are already fully trained, Hixson said the handlers will put the dogs through training drills several times a day in order to keep them sharp and because that is the dogs' play time.
"Every day when we're on patrol, myself and officer Jaro, we'll stop four or five times throughout our shift, let the dog out to use the restroom, and then we'll call him back to us to do basically a short obedience session like we did here today," Hixson said. "The dogs come to us fully trained, obviously, but we get 16 hours of training a month that's usually a joint training with us, Bentonville and Pea Ridge, and sometimes Benton County, and other agencies in the area. But we continuously train every day. You always have to find a way to make a training session out of any situation, to make it fun for the dogs. For the dogs, going to work is their play time. That's their fun time."
Hixson said sometimes he uses the "play time" to help Huk hone his tracking skills.
"Sometimes I'll find a kid in the park and have them walk out and hide [Huk's] tug toy and then use that as a track training opportunity and have him track the kid's scent that he's left behind," he said. "Or I'll ask a kid to take my pocket knife and hide it out in a field and then have [Huk] go find the pocket knife. It's a way to get other people's scent and also allows the kids to get involved so they can get a free baseball card [with Huk's photo on it] out of it."
When asked if Bella Vista was big enough to necessitate having a division of three canine officers, Hixson quickly responded, "Oh yes. Officer Jaro and I are swamped right now as far as getting called out on our days off or nights off, and not just by our officers but by other agencies in the area that use us as well."
He continued, "Arkansas State Police, for example, doesn't have a canine any closer than Little Rock. So if a state trooper needs to run a car they'll call one of us or the agency that has a dog nearest to them. So we're staying busy."
Hixson said with the arrival of Niko the division will be able to have a canine officer assigned to each shift.
"We have three shifts: days, evenings and midnights," he said, "so we'll have a dog on each shift and we'll have a dog working every day of the week. We'll stagger our days off to where we'll always have a dog on at all times."
While canine officers are required to go through a certification process once a year, Hixson said Police Department tries to certify its canine officers every six months "because it's better to keep that certification as current as possible."
He said when the dogs come to the department they are anywhere from 16-24 months old.
"We like to work them at least five to six years on the road," he said, "so that would make them anywhere from 7 to 8 years old when they retire, which gives them enough time to spend a few years at home with their handler and their families and just be a dog, basically."
Bennett Horne/The Weekly Vista