Boomer keeps things from going boom
At first glance, Boomer the golden retriever is pretty typical of his breed — long silky coat, soft brown eyes, floppy ears and the sweet and gentle demeanor the breed is known for. But looks can be deceiving, for while Boomer is all of those things, he is also a fearsome weapon in the fight for public safety.
Boomer is what is known as an explosives detection dog. His highly sensitive nose has been trained to detect minute amounts of explosives and propellants (such as gunpowder and ammunition).
He is also known as a ”sole purpose dog” meaning that explosives detection is all he does — unlike other K9 officers, he has no protection or attack training, no fugitive tracking skills and no narcotics schooling. This is in large part due to the vital importance of the task at hand.
“If you have a multi-purpose dog, and he fails to detect narcotics in someone’s car, oh well, it’s a bummer but all that happens is somebody gets away with their narcotics,” said Sergeant Randy Williams. “If an explosives dog misses, something really, really terrible can happen.”
The bomb squad had been wanting to get a dog for some time, but the funding was always a sticking point.
It finally came through following a terrifying local incident, when a bomb threat forced the evacuation of students from Cardinal Newman High School, Saint Rose Catholic School and Roseland Collegiate Prep on March 13, 2015.
Without a dog of their own, local deputies were forced to evacuate the schools then wait for hours for dogs from other jurisdictions to arrive and begin the careful search. Thankfully, nothing was found, but “after that, we got our funding,” Williams said.
The total cost for acquiring Boomer was $90,000; the bulk of that is for the specialized vehicle he needs to be transported in — an SUV-style squad car equipped with the Chilly Dog system to keep him cool and safe. The rest went for the cost of Boomer and training for his human partner Ken Williams (no relation).
Though Ken Williams considers himself a dog lover, this is his first time working professionally with a dog. “I’ve always been interested in working with a detection dog,” Williams said. “But I think it’s really valuable for me to have bomb squad experience first, before I got the dog.”
He says Boomer is kind and friendly, but definitely a professional. “He’ll go greet someone,” he said. “But then his nose starts working, and he’s on task.”
But because he is sweet-natured and not a protection dog, the department is hoping to do more outreach work with him — taking him to schools to meet students, public demonstrations, etc. Randy Williams said that was part of the plan in getting a “flop-eared dog” as opposed to a more intimidating “prick-eared dog” like a Belgian Malinois.
Boomer is two years old and was bred in Brazil, then brought to Vohne Liche Kennels in Banning, California where his training began. Both Randy Williams and Ken Williams were involved in selecting him, and then Ken Williams returned for the three-week training course at Vohne Liche to learn how to work with Boomer and cement their partnership.
Boomer lives with Ken Williams and goes home with him when they are off-duty, though he sleeps in a kennel, rather than on the couch.
Ken Williams admits Boomer would probably make an excellent couch potato, but that he has to work hard to make sure their professional partnership is maintained. He is always training the dog, including leaving scent items to be discovered at times that Boomer wouldn’t necessarily be expecting it.
“The dog wants to please Ken, so he will cheat,” Randy Williams said. “So we have to make sure we keep him sharp so he’s finding things that are there, not alerting because he wants to please Ken.”
Related to this type of training is the idea that Boomer should be working independently of his handler in some scenarios.
While a dog can be deployed to check out a specific item like a suspicious package, it’s more often a scenario like the one at Cardinal Newman that a dog and handler will be facing.
“I never want to cue the dog where to look,” said Ken Williams. “He should be driving that himself, looking for the odors on his own. They say the mind of a detection dog is like a Rolodex, and every time he identifies an odor, it goes permanently into the Rolodex.”
For Ken Williams, Boomer is the perfect combination of professional and companionable. “He’s a really happy dog,” said Ken Williams. “He’s great to work with and it’s so impressive seeing what he can do.”
