Officer John Waldo from the Marquette City Police Department sits next to K-9 Nitro. Waldo became certified to be a K-9 handler Oct. 1 and has been partnered with Nitro, a black lab that is trained to detect explosives. (Journal photo by Jaymie Depew)

MARQUETTE — Two K-9 handlers from the Marquette City Police Department received certifications Oct. 1 after attending the annual National K-9 Training Seminar in Alpena.

Handler Todd Collins, along with K-9 Scud, and handler John Waldo, along with K-9 Nitro, were among the 330 teams from the U.S. and Canada that attended the September seminar through the National Association of Professional Canine Handlers.

Collins and Waldo are the only two K-9 handlers in the MPD.

The certification was a first for Waldo, who partnered with Nitro in April so the two could become acquainted before training.

“It takes almost a year to concrete that bond between the dog and the handler,” Waldo said. “He is my dog, there is no question who his owner is, but it takes almost a year to get that trust.”

Waldo has a military background working with the U.S. Army and U.S. Air Force and has been with the MPD for 8 years. He previously worked with the Muskegon Heights Police Department for nearly 10 years.

“I’m our tactical training officer and I came from more of a tactical background so becoming a K-9 officer kind of fit well with that,” Waldo said.

Nitro is a single-purpose detection dog and the only full-time K-9 in the Upper Peninsula trained to find explosives. Among explosives, the black lab is also trained to find firearms, ammunition and the like.

Waldo said different scenarios were set up for the different types of detection dogs during the training.

“With him being an explosive detection dog, they utilized some buildings and facilities at the Alpena Combat Readiness Training Center,” he said. “It’s an international guard base, so we use their buildings and they hide explosives, dynamite, C-4s, all kinds of explosives. They hid them and I had to take Nitro through the building and locate all the explosives.”

Waldo said there’s a lot of pressure placed on dogs that are trained to find explosives.

“If he misses a bomb, there’s the possibility of life-threatening injuries and danger to the public,” Waldo said. “Obviously we want to find what we’re looking for, even in the narcotics area, but with a bomb dog, he can’t be wrong. He’s got to be right, so it requires a tremendous amount of ongoing training which we do weekly. Sometimes every other day I’m training with him.”

Out of the 57 K-9 dispatch calls during the last fiscal year, Nitro was dispatched 11 times.

“Recently, we’ve had bomb threats at the new hospital site,” Waldo said. “Nitro had to clear the entire construction scene just to make sure it was free of any explosives. If any of the schools have any bomb threats we have to go and check. They’re usually unfounded, but just as a precaution we run them through the schools.”

Nitro was trained to respond in a passive way. Waldo said when he detects something, he’ll jerk his head and sit immediately.

“To look for an alert, we pay attention to how the dog’s breathing, is he smelling something?” Waldo said. “Nitro doesn’t bark or make noise, he notifies me in a non-verbal way because acoustically there’s a vibration that’s put out when a dog barks so if he’s close to the source of an explosive or device, we don’t want him barking and we don’t want him pawing at things to disrupt things.”

Collins is one of 57 trainers out of 1,146 members that attended the annual training. K-9 Scud is a dual-purpose detection dog, certified for narcotics, detection, handler protection, tracking, building search, article search and obedience.

“Without Todd Collins, this whole operation wouldn’t be as successful as it’s been,” Waldo said. “He’s actually certified to train others so it’s been very helpful to us.”

Waldo said the MPD works with other agencies throughout the U.P. to train together sometimes.

Collins was originally Nitro’s handler, along with Lt. Marty Munger, who retired in August 2017. Munger was the first K-9 handler at the MPD. Collins is certified to handle Nitro in Waldo’s absence.

Waldo and Nitro have recently given several demonstrations to classrooms and groups in the area. Waldo said he’s been grateful for the support from the community.

“We get a lot of the support from the community, with fundraisers and things like that,” he said. “Without their support, I don’t know if what we do would be possible.”

Jaymie Depew can be reached at 906-228-2500, ext. 206.