'It's pretty exceptional': Lake Co. K9 follows his nose to solve crimes, find missing persons
CHICAGO (CBS) -- Only on 2.
He's a four-legged crime fighter who was once named K9 Of The Year in a national contest.
Now, police say "Dax" HAS helped catch more than a dozen people connected to crimes this month alone. CBS 2's Tim McNicholas shows us one of the Lake County Sheriff's Office's most valuable assets.
He's about as friendly as he his furry. Unless you get on his bad side.
"Get off the car. The dog will bite you."
The good news for this guy? This is just a training drill and he's wearing an arm pad. But Lake County Sheriff's Deputy John Forlenza said it was the real deal when his K9 Dax caught 19 people over the past 2 weeks.
Including car theft suspects and people connected to the burglary of a local school.
"It's pretty exceptional. it's a rarity that you get that many people in that short amount of time," Forlenza said.
Over the years, we've reported that Dax found a missing suicidal woman in the woods, located a domestic violence suspect and took down a robbery suspect even after that suspect punched Dax.
Forlenza credits their success to the training they do every week at TOPS Kennel in Grayslake--complete with obstacle courses to simulate staircases, tight crawl spaces, and tunnels.
"You know we understand each other. I read him very well and he reads me probably even better," Forlenza said "And once you have that combination, it makes for a very good working K9 team."
You see, Dax is trained to detect a suspect or a missing person's scent on a piece of evidence or even at the scene of a crime.
From there, he does what's called scent specific tracking, or following that scent to wherever that person might be located."
Earlier this month, police said he picked up the scent of three people in an abandoned stolen car and found them more than a mile away.
"He used his nose to find those people and get them to surrender."
Forlenza said he's rewarded Dax with some chicken wings at home. But he's already back to training for the next case.