Officer Allegra begins the Simi Valley Police K-9 demonstration by explaining to the crowd what they are about to demonstrate.

There are currently four active K-9 units in the Simi Valley Police Department.

• "Rex" - Officer Morton

• "Hasko" - Officer Allegra

• "Dax" - Officer Martin

• "Gero" - Officer Wigginton

The K-9 demonstration is always a big hit with the kids.

• FON - K-9 Demo photo essay

Simi Valley Police K-9 dogs are trained to always walk "heal" on the opposite side of the officers weapon.

As you can see from this photo, officer Allegras right hand is free to retrieve his weapon because "Hasko" is walking on his left side.

Officer Wigginton explained to the crowd how a police dog is trained to search for specific scents, in this case it's cannabis "Marijuana". The drug is placed in a bag which is then placed in a thick rubber hose with holes drilled in it so the scent can escape.

Officer Wigginton went on to explain that the dogs are not motivated by addiction to the drugs, but by the reward of their favorite "toy". The scent of the target substance, in this case a drug, is associated with the reward of playing with this toy. Find the scent and they get some play time. It's like a well practiced game of fetch.

While Officer Allegra was placing several boxes on the ground, one of which had the target drugs concealed in it, Officer Wigginton informed the crowd that they are about to witness a performance of the K-9 Team that took first place in the recent Southern California K-9 Awards.

Simi Valley's Police K-9 Units, which are funded by public contributions, are not unaccustomed to being the best in their field. Officer Shannon and the now retired "Bodo" took home the title of World Champion K9 Team in the World Police and Fire Games of 1997. This is a kin to taking the Gold Metal in the Olympics.

The Simi Valley Police K-9 dogs are trained to respond to target scents in a passive manner by sitting down next to it as opposed to clawing at the scent.

Officer Wigginton gave a real world analogy.

If he had his dog arrive on scene to search for drugs in an expensive motor vehicle (I think he mentioned a Mercedes Benz) and the dog hit on the faint smell of drugs in the leather clad back seat from a person who had sat there recently with drugs in their pockets. And if the dog proceeded to shred the cars seats, as it was trained, only to find no visible trace of drugs. There would be much explaining to do in front of the Lieutenant's desk.

So instead of shredding the car seats to kibbles 'n bits the K-9 dog will simply sit his butt down next to the scent and the officer can do his job by detaining the suspect and running "Wants and Warrants" etc...

All of the Simi Valley Police K-9 dogs are true German Shepards, in that they were breed and trained in Germany. When they arrive in the hands of the Simi Valley Police Department they need further training and certification, but because they were initially trained in Germany their basic commands are all in the German language so the K-9 Police Officers have to learn those German language commands that the dogs already understand.

You might also notice that the dogs names are German. While the axiom that you can't teach an old dog new tricks might be questionable, it's a certain fact  that it's a lot more productive to build on what has already been taught.

Hasko's reward for finding the drugs.