LEE'S SUMMIT, Mo. — “When we train I like to let things sit out for awhile to kind of simulate something that's been hidden,” Ray Mccarty said.
McCarty with Metro K9Services, showed 41 Action News how his dog, Phoenix, prepares for her work day, by hiding scents she may find during a search.
The company works with schools, businesses and private homes, where people can rent the dog to detect whether or not there are narcotics.
“This is the odor of marijuana, but we also train on meth, cocaine, heroin and PCP and ecstasy,” McCarty said.
To get started, McCarty asks Phoenix: “You gonna find your gift?”
Phoenix searches the room until she discovers the scent.
“I thought it'd be a good idea to have a dog that's not law enforcement, a nonlaw enforcement canine that doesn't do apprehension or anything like that where it's safe to have them among the students, so I had started it,” McCarty said.
Parents can actually rent the K9 to see whether or not their kids have drugs hidden in their rooms.
“The times that we find things, it's basically just confirming the parent's suspicions and it's nice when we don't find things,” McCarty said.
New to the team is CoCo.
“Someone had dumped her, abandoned her as a baby and when I got her,” McCarty said.
Now, the three-year-old chocolate lab is training in firearms detection.
“We see the schools doing the active shooter training, which is good but it'd be nice to have something in place to prevent that from the first place,” McCarty said.
Still going through the training, McCarty said CoCo will assist in some school searches starting in the Fall.
McCarty said the company is not obligated to report if drugs are found. He said they mark the location and leave it up to the customer to decide what to do.
