Bomb sniffing dog joins sheriff’s office

Sherman, a 15-month-old Yellow Labrador retriever raised in a federal penitentiary, has been assigned to the Alexandria Sheriff’s Office as an Explosives Detection Canine.

Acquisition of the bomb-sniffing dog was through a cooperative arrangement between Sheriff Dana Lawhorne and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF). The canine is the first for the Alexandria Sheriff’s Office.

Sherman’s handler is Deputy Sheriff John O’Hara, a 24-year veteran of the Alexandria Sheriff’s Office. Sherman and Deputy O’Hara graduated June 15 from the Canine Training and Operations Support Center operated by the ATF training center in Front Royal. The training program was 10 weeks, 400 hours, with 10 to 12 hour days Monday through Saturday with only a few hours off on Sundays. The 58-pound dog was born in March, 2006 under the auspices of Puppies Behind Bars, Poughkeepsie, N. Y. After eight weeks, he was transferred to the federal penitentiary in New Fairfield, Conn., where he was raised as a seeing-eye dog for the blind. At 11 months old on March 9, ATF determined Sherman was more suited for bomb sniffing.

Sherman’s primary duties are:
• Searching incoming deliveries at the Alexandria Detention Center.
• Searching all parked vehicles at the city detention center and courthouse.
• Availability for any and all emergencies inside the detention center.
• Availability for all law enforcement agencies, including the U. S.
• Federal Courthouse, Alexandria, where many high profile cases are heard.

Sheriff Lawhorne said Sherman is trained to detect:
• 44 different explosive odors.
• All types of guns, automatic and revolver.
• TNT
• C-4 (plastique explosive)
• Black Powder, usually found in pipe bombs
• Many bomb derivatives.

Lawhorne said the canine’s addition to the Sheriff’s Office is vital one because it “adds to our effective specialized security. Deputy O’Hara and Sherman are a matched set — a team. In fact, Sherman lives with him 24 hours daily and even has quarters in his office at the detention center.”

O’Hara is responsible for the dog’s daily care and “feeds him through finding explosives twice daily. When he finds the target he just sits.” He moves at O’Hara’s command but will respond when the sheriff orders him to sit. 

—Staff Report