Monterey County Sheriff Office welcomes new explosive-trained K9

UPDATE 6/30/2016 5:15 PM:

A new addition to the Monterey County Sheriff’s Office. K9 Harry is the department’s first explosive-detection dog. His handler, Deputy Ana Hernandez is the department’s first female handler.

The 18-month-old black Lab was born in Ireland; he arrived in Salinas four weeks ago. While he had training prior to his arrival, since then, he’s been honing his skills with Hernandez.

“We’ve learned to work with each other,” Hernandez said. “He’s learning me, I’m learning him. We’ve trained with different training aids and different odors, if you will. And we’ve gone through four weeks, different venues and locations, trying to expose him to different environments.”

Like movie theaters and the Monterey Bay Aquarium. The duo would search for explosives ahead of big events or visits from dignitaries.

“You’ve got the AT&T Pro Am, that’s high exposure,” Sheriff Steve Bernal said. “The Salinas Air Show, any big event where they need to do a sweep for bombs, they’re going to use the dog.”

Sheriff Bernal said the process to bring Harry here started six months ago, after the San Bernardino massacre. The head of the Bomb Squad told Bernal there was a need.

“That day I had a meeting with the Sheriff’s Advisory Council, it’s a nonprofit that raises funds to purchase equipment for us that we can’t normally get through our allotted budget through the Board of Supervisors,” Bernal said. “So I gave the Sheriff’s Advisory Council the proposal and they volunteered to buy us a bomb dog.”

Harry is strictly a bomb dog. No bark, no bite — he will not be going after bad guys.

“Very mellow dog, but when he works, he’s excited about it and he is a go-getter,” Hernandez said.

Prior to Harry’s arrival, the only other local bomb dog was in Del Rey Oaks. K9 Sarik is known for helping in sweeps during the Super Bowl.

ORIGINAL POST:

The Monterey County Sheriff’s Office is welcoming a new addition to the team. K9 Harry is trained in sniffing out explosives.

The 18-month-old dog from Ireland arrived four weeks ago. He and his handler, Deputy Ana Hernandez, have been training all over the area, including movie theaters and the aquarium.

KION’s Mariana Hicks will have more on this story tonight at 5 and 6.