By Olivia Hines
Tribune Star
Burnsville, Minnesota – at first glance, with its flexible ears and its affectionate nature, this yellow laboratory seems to be begging for scratches, but in reality it is doing its job.
His name is Duke, and he is a police dog with an unusual occupation: he helps people calm down.
Duke joined the Health Unit of the Burnsville Police Department two years ago when his handling, the sergeant. Max Yakovlev, attended a National Response Conference in Kansas City, and proposed the idea of a critical response of K-9 incidents to the police chief, the city administrator and the City Council.
“They said ‘Yes!’, An easy sale,” Yakovlev laughed.
Simply being there, Duke helps to calm people so they can communicate and receive medical assistance, if necessary.
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Janeen Baggette, the founder of K9 for freedom and independenceAn organization that enables K-9 of the critical incident response, including Duke, said people begin to calm down when they caress and interact with dogs.
Duke will interact with the people he has identified with higher levels of cortisol, a hormone released when people experience stress and will offer them comfort, Baggette said. People in traumatic situations, including crime victims, police officers, firefighters and those who have a mental health crisis, begin to self -regulate when they caress and interact with Duke, which reduces their cortisol levels and increases their serotonin (the happy hormone).
Duke is so effective in his work that he alerted Yakovlev that a Minnesota Star Tribune reporter in the allocation had high cortisol levels when he lean strongly against his legs. Yakovlev said Duke wanted him to sit on the floor so he could sleep by his side for pets.
Yakovlev and Duke respond to mental health on average three times a week. Most of the time, Duke is in the community: visiting schools to help children calm down after recreation or get some pets in an elderly home.
Yakovlev said that Duke assumes a lot of stress while he is at work and will then be “out of cold”, sleeping in the back seat of the squad car.
Burnsville police officer Erica Houston said Duke has been a great asset for an apartment that still cures the deaths of shots last year of officers Paul Elmstrand and Matthew Rog and After responding to a call of domestic violence and a later confrontation.
Houston takes care of Duke in the office, where he sits under his desk or wanders freely when Yakovlev is out. She said she is a loving dog who wants to snuggle, toys and sweets.
“Occasionally, he makes a diet because we give him too many treats,” said Houston.
Duke arrived in Baggette from a breeder when he was about 4 months old, and began to try and basic obedience training before specializing in recognizing cortisol levels in people. Baggette trained Duke for eight months before being placed in the Burnsville Police Department.
“It’s very dumb,” Baggette said. “Very playful, love everyone and wants to be everyone’s best friend. He is the epitome of a laboratory.”
Baggette, who has a history of application of the law, exposed Duke to make fun of the fights at the Texas Local Policies Academy to get used to high -stress chaotic situations in new places.
From there, Duke did a cash training, similar to the detection training of narcotics and explosives for other K-9, except that Duke sniffed samples of people in a high-stress situation.
Baggette said Cortisol has a different smell. Normally use sweat for training, but saliva is another option.
Baggette has trained at least 20 dogs placed in agencies throughout the country in the last four years. One of his dogs, a chocolate laboratory called MarshallIt is in the Savage Fire Department.
Yakovlev continues Duke’s daily training by taking him to strong and chaotic places, such as Home Depot, so he can help Duke practice calm in the midst of different sounds and smells.
Yakovlev makes training explosions of 10-15 minutes throughout the day that add an hour.
“Anything after 20 minutes and begins to get bored. He does,” said Yakovlev, while Duke lay on the floor looking the other way.
In the Home Depot in Nicollet Boulevard W., Yakovlev took Duke for the building, letting him greet the employees and then take him to one side every few minutes to make a basic training in obedience.
The sounds of the lifting wheelbarrows and the wooden blow that was reacted did not deter Duke as he followed all the commands, his tail moved all the time.
A command required that Duke maintained visual contact with Yakovlev, while they are treated where they are stirred around their face.
“The goal is that I should be locked on me,” said Yakovlev.
Duke jumped on the plywood so that his legs would get used to different textures, and even knocked down in an orange car while Yakovleblev was staggering so that Duke could experience unstable surfaces.
Baggette said that managers and their dogs need to rectify every year, and although it is difficult, training is necessary for the handling and the dog to learn to respond to a person in a crisis.
The managers are required to pass a 50-questions test and get a 70% or more score, send credentials and obtain at least seven training certificates before being combined with a K-9. Then, the couple must go through the behavior situation for training together.
Baggette said that training a K-9 is more than basic obedience and friendship.
“If I take their tail, I know they won’t bite,” Baggette said, explaining that a dog cannot seem friendly: it has to be friendly and should be trained not to respond to uncomfortable situations biting.
Outside the clock, Yakovlev said Duke has a different personality.
“It’s very social, very sensitive,” said Yakovlev. “If you lift his voice, he will turn his back on you.”
When choosing a K-9, Yakovlev said that he needed a dog that would fit in his home life, since Duke lives with him and his family.
Yakovlev said his daughters love Duke, and Duke plays well with the other two family dogs, a German shepherd and a Staffordshire bull terrier.
“My daughters call him Dukester,” said Yakovlev.
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