Published: May 21, 2008 02:07 am         

Many Faces of Meth: 'Pound' gets another chance

Pound isn’t named after a pound of marijuana or a kilo of meth.

Instead Pound, the Sheriff’s Office’s Black Labrador drug dog, is named after the place he was found.

“Our dog is just a dog that was rescued from the (Greenville) pound, and he’s a great narcotics dog,” said Sheriff’s Office Narcotics Lt. Brian Alford.

Life wasn’t easy for Pound before he was hand-picked by Cash resident Phil Prather, who helps train dogs for the Sheriff’s Office, and Sheriff’s Office staff to become the department’s next narcotics dog.

Nobody knows just how old Pound is. When he was rescued, Pound had a nasty case of heartworms and had to be quarantined in a pen for two months before he could start training.

Today, after a little tender love and care, Pound appears to be like any healthy, well-trained dog.

Pound loves to play, which makes him ideal for his job, said Byron Harding, the Sheriff’s Office’s narcotics interdiction officer, who cares for Pound off and on the job.

Like most narcotics dogs, Pound associates his toy with drugs. During the training phase, Pound’s toy is soaked with the smell of drugs, which will help Pound locate drugs once he’s out on the streets.

“The drugs are in bags, but the smell still gets out,” Harding explained.

When officers hide the toy, Pound goes searching trying to find it — and will usually find drugs. Once the drugs are located, the real toy is used to replace the actual drugs.

Prather initially donated Pound to see how he would do. If Pound performed well, the Sheriff’s Office would be able to find the money to keep him for good.

Pound must have sensed it and wanted to stay at his new home because shortly after starting highway drug interdiction with Harding, he found $360,000 in drug money sitting next to a loaded gun on the back seat of a car. And while Pound isn’t taught to find money, drug money has a residue that he can sense, Harding explained.

Pound’s $360,000 find allowed the county to purchase him for $3,500 and give him a stable home for the rest of his life. The $3,500 is to compensate Prather for the time he spent training and caring for Pound. When Pound gets too old, he’ll be retired and live out the rest of his days with Harding.

But these days, Pound is busy dog. He’s been called out more than 50 times this year to not just Hunt County locations, but to other locations in surrounding counties.

His nose is so keen, he can find drugs that his human partners miss. For example, Harding pulled over a man hauling a 23 foot trailer, who declined search claiming he was hauling top-secret military parts. Pound started hunting and immediately started scratching at the back door of the trailer — his sign that there are drugs near. At the front of the trailer were two joints, Harding explained.

Recently he found about four ounces of crack cocaine in a car that was impounded by Fannin County that humans couldn’t locate during a lengthy search of the car, Harding said.

It took Pound less than two minutes to locate the drugs stuffed in the car’s headliner.

Thanks to Pound’s efforts, Alford said, the Sheriff’s Office has been able to seize a variety of items and drugs including a van, a BMW, the $360,000 cash, cocaine, marijuana and methamphetamine. While the drugs are obviously disposed of, since they can’t be resold, the Sheriff’s Office can sell the vehicles and put the money toward more law enforcement programs and supplies.