Deputy Kevin LaPyrne and his partner Kai are highlighted in a story here:

Kevin LaPyrne, a deputy with the Orange County Sheriff’s Department Canine Unit in Santa, Ana, Calif., has the type of partner only a select number of officers in his division have: Kai, a six-year-old male Malinois K9 dog.

Hailing from Holland, Kai came to the United States in 2003. He’s trained in obedience, handler protection, searching for evidence, apprehension of criminal offenders, as well as narcotics detection, making him a dual-purpose dog.

K9s are specifically trained to follow the freshest human scent, and because of their superior snouts, are able to aid officers in the process of making arrests and/or investigating crime scenes.

“Kai’s job—like any K9’s—is to help save our lives and make our jobs safer,” says LaPyrne. “Their drive is through the roof. It’s hard to understand how truly courageous they are,” he says, making reference to SWAT teams who wait for K9s to arrive on location before entering a situation where a dog’s superior sense of smell is needed.

LaPyrne explains that K9 dogs are trained to alert their human partners in one of two ways during narcotics detection: active alert, when the dog scratches to indicate, or passive alert, when the dog sniffs and then sits when something has been located. Kai is trained passively, although there is nothing passive about him—in 2007 alone, Kai was deployed on approximately 77 calls. 

Read it all here.