- Boomer, where are you, Boy?

- Boomer.

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(children shouting) - He's got a badge.

He's fighting crime.

So he went from being a dog from the shelter to being an awesome, awesome police dog.

(dramatic music) (dog barking) Find him.

(dramatic music continues) (gentle guitar music) (gulls cawing) What you got?

What you got?

My name is Michael Thompson, K-9 officer for Long Beach Township Police Department.

Now, we're a small barrier island off the coast of New Jersey.

We're at 18 miles of the most beautiful beach, I say, on the whole East Coast.

(gentle guitar music continues) Long Beach Township is a little paradise.

How you guys doing?

The whole history of Long Beach Township Police Department, there's always been canines involved.

Our new current program that we got going on is we have two individual single-purpose dogs for scent.

Whether it be, you know, one of our dogs, narcotics dog, the other one is human tracking.

- What's his name?

- We call him Tex.

He's a year-and-a-half old bloodhound that we actually- - I don't think I've ever seen a bloodhound up close.

- Yeah.

Yeah.

He's actually new to our police department.

We actually rescued him from an animal shelter in Manahawkin about six months ago.

And he's currently in training right now for human tracking.

- Oh.

- Yeah.

I know, buddy.

I know, I know.

What'd I sign up for?

(person laughs) what'd I sign up for?

Tex is very new to the force.

He's been with us about six months, had our first live, real-life scenario a few weeks ago when he helped assist locating a passenger of a stolen vehicle.

We brought Tex over to the area where the vehicle was.

I introduced the odor to him of the seat and, you know, probably took us a good 45 minutes, but eventually we tracked the guy down.

- Impressive.

- The subject that we had found had said in, I'm try to make this the nicest way, he knew that he was..., when the dogs were coming after him.

(introspective music) We have two main reasons to have a scent dog, specifically a tracking dog for Long Beach Township.

One, we're very populated during the summertime and it's very common that we have children who run off from their parents, and usually not on purpose, but they kind of lose sense of direction.

And obviously you could imagine being a parent, what it would be like losing your child on an island that's surrounded by water.

We deal with elderly people that suffer from Alzheimer's or dementia that walk off.

Or maybe the elderly person who has some type of medical issue, he's capable of tracking in all types of conditions, whether it's snowing, whether it's raining, whether it's, the wind's blowing 20 miles per hour, if the wind's not blowing anywhere, it's all part of the training that we do, which is called environmental training.

Come on inside.

Come on inside.

Come on, Tex.

(hand tapping) Hey, Dispatcher Emily, how you doing today?

- Hi, Tex.

- Number two, after superstorm Sandy, unfortunately a lot of houses suffered significant damage and a lot of houses were exposed.

(waves crashing) (gentle somber music) - We had homes literally blown off their foundations.

It was just utter destruction down there, open gas lines, everything.

It was impassable.

- These poor people just suffered so much damage from the storm.

And now we are dealing with people looting and going into their houses and taking what was left.

- The reason why we went for a dog was if we had a call for service, and we did witness somebody or had a call in regards to someone being on the property, we could have the dog track that individual rather than wait for another agency to send a dog over, we would have our bloodhound right there at our disposal and literally could be on the island within 15 minutes.

- So what do you think about taking a dog down here and train 'em in this area where there's a little more density, Mike, what do you think?

- Absolutely, I think, you know, obviously we come into our most populated area here as opposed to the north end.

So I think it's- Long Beach Township when it comes to tracking, is a tracking nightmare.

We're a barrier island, so it's always windy.

There's tons of pavement.

During the summertime, it's very heavily populated.

So there's odors everywhere.

And again, with it being a barrier island, the scent really has nothing to attach to.

Everything over here is constantly moving.

So to track a wanted person or to track a missing person could be somewhat challenging.

- Hey, Michael, how are you?

- What's up, Mayor?

How you doing, sir?

- Good to see you, man.

Ah, he's looking good.

How's it going?

- [Mike] Yeah, training's going very well with him.

All in all, he's doing a great job.

- [Mayor] Good, good, good.

- He got a nice K-9 demonstration with the school tomorrow as well, so.

- You go to school tomorrow?

- Yeah.

He's gonna be in there with the kids.

- When I found out that Tex came from the Southern Ocean County Shelter, I was tickled to death.

It was a great thing.

Yeah, here we saved an animal, number one, and we're gonna put him to work.

He's gonna be our new ambassador, and he's gonna find some kids.

He's gonna find some kids, he's gonna find some bad guys, and he's a great member of our force.

- Thank you, sir.

Thank you.

Not all criminals are dumb.

Criminals talk.

Come, come, come, come.

And once they know that we have a bloodhound over at Long Beach Township, I can assure you that they're gonna be a lot less opt to come over here and try to break into the house knowing that a bloodhound's gonna be hot on their trail.

(mellow guitar music) When the department came to me and expressed interest in getting a scent dog specifically for tracking, due to the problems that we had after Superstorm Sandy, really the right call for it was to get a bloodhound.

At that point, we had two options.

One, we could go purchase a bloodhound, which could be expensive or we could check the local shelters and just happened to see if there's any bloodhounds available.

I put a call in that day to a friend of mine who also works a bloodhound for our county.

He had said, "Hey, Mike, hey, go check out your local shelter.

We just got word it's a bloodhound in there, and you never know, it may work out."

I can tell you before I got my first shelter dog, K-9 Tex, I kind of thought shelter dogs were misbehaved dogs.

They were the junkyard dogs.

And I couldn't have been any more wrong.

I walked into that shelter and I fell in love with all of the dogs.

And not only did I fall in love with Tex, I fell in love, I would've took 'em all home.

I worked hand in hand with the volunteers over at the shelter and we were able to make a connection.

- Hey, there he is.

Say hi.

- Hello.

- [Brian] Hey, buddy, how are you?

I came with treats.

- Oh, yeah, he's gonna be your best friend.

- Mike, how are you?

Good to see you.

- Good to see you.

Likewise.

- How's my boy doing?

- He's doing very good.

- How's my buddy doing?

Hey, Tex, how are you, handsome?

- So we got a lot of good stories about him.

Obviously as you know, since we adopted him, he started his training with us.

- [Brian] How's that been going?

- He's been everything but perfect.

I mean, everything including perfect.

He's unbelievable, man.

(Brian laughs) Great success story.

I can't tell you how great of a dog he is.

- [Brian] He loves everybody, he's a big lover?

- He loves, he loves everyone and, you know, he's just got a lot of energy, exactly what we're looking for.

- [Brian] Not just a handsome face, right?

(laughs) - No, he definitely has the handsome face, that's for sure.

For us, when we look at a dog, we look at the opposite of what house pet you would want.

Usually people that want a house pet, they want a nice, quiet, calm dog.

Us in the police field, we want the exact opposite.

We want a dog that's absolutely nuts.

We never want to have to beg our dogs to work.

So we want a dog that's high energy that wants to play tennis ball till he passes out, that wants to fetch the food till his belly's completely full.

So everything's high energy, out of control craziness makes the perfect scent dog.

- I see nothing's changed.

- Yeah, no.

- I see nothing's changed.

Still food motivated.

- Oh, yeah.

- Oh, what a good boy.

Everybody's got an attachment to Tex when he was here at the shelter, and he wasn't here very long.

We all just were really fond of him.

And when we knew Mike took him, we always said, "Mike, listen, you know, you gotta keep us, you know, abreast of every little development that he makes" You know, we're like following him through all the training, and then we're now we're following his career.

But we were just extremely ecstatic.

(all chattering) Mike's gotta get you back on the job.

- [Mike] He's like, "We gotta go back in police car."

- [Brian] Mike's gotta get back to his job.

- From experience having two dogs that were purchased, they're not cheap.

You know, on the low end, you're talking about 3,500, and it could go up to 15, $20,000.

Shelter dog cost us $0.

So you're almost crazy not to give these dogs a chance.

- Bye!

- See you, buddy!

- This facility here houses close to about 300 animals.

It serves over 26 townships in the county of Ocean County.

And we see probably between four to 6,000 animals per year at just these two facilities alone.

I think we have a lot of the same challenges that many other communities face.

One of them, of course, is overcrowding.

We are an open admission animal facility, we're not a private facility.

So every animal that comes to us, we have to take, we can't turn any animal away.

So that makes it a little difficult for us.

And we face a lot of challenges in trying to find animals that permanent loving home.

- He's really making his mark already.

You know, we can't thank you guys enough for giving us the opportunity to adopt him and make him a great success story.

- [Brian] Oh, outstanding.

It's our pleasure.

He's a great dog.

He's a good boy, right?

- Yeah.

- Good job.

Congratulations, buddy.

Keep up the good work.

- You guys, we appreciate all your work as well.

- Our pleasure, Mike.

Thank you.

- The relationship that we have with the shelter is phenomenal.

Not only if we need to get us another dog to add onto our police unit, but they also have a facility that we could go over there and train.

We also like to take the dogs over there when they have open events.

Especially now that we have a canine that came from them to show the public that hey, you know what?

This honorable police dog right here came from the shelter and not too long ago, was one of the dogs that you might be looking at.

(dog barks) You know, we gave him the opportunity to come into, not only the the real world, but the real world of police.

So went from going to be a dog that really didn't have a chance to now being a full-fledged police officer.

And he's been phenomenal with that.

He's a great liaison to our community.

He's one of the faces of our police department.

So he is, you know, I always tell kids he's our superhero.

(bright music) Texas!

What you doing, pal?

What's up, buddy?

What's up?

Want to go to work, buddy?

Bloodhounds are phenomenal for tracking solely because their body makeup.

They have the big ears, they have the wrinkles in their face.

They have a much larger nose, and they drool.

So what happens is, is as they're tracking, the drool is attaching to the dead skin cells.

The ears are ruffling up the dead skin cells and it's getting all trapped in those wrinkles.

His body makeup assists him into doing a good job at tracking.

All right, Jack, today we're gonna do a training scenario for K-9 Tex, the bloodhound.

And what we're gonna try to mimic today is either some type of lost child, elderly person, or maybe a suspect that ran from us.

So what I'm gonna ask you to do is you're gonna go up to the closest trail there.

Leave any type of article of clothing behind, whether it be your hat, a shirt, a sock, a shoe, whatever it may be.

Place it down there.

And I want you to walk down a trail.

With a day like today, obviously it's a pretty windy day.

We may actually circle around behind you.

More than likely we're not gonna run the exact trail that you ran because remember, your odor, your scent is being pushed in the opposite direction.

It's being pushed wherever the wind's going.

So if you do see us come around you or behind you, it's important that you stay still.

Don't try to give the dog any attention.

We wanna make sure that the dog's using his nose, not his ears or not his eyes to see you.

When he does come up to you, what you're gonna do is you're gonna hand him this meat.

This is his reward, okay?

Tex's paycheck at the end is a piece of meat and a lot of praise and a lot of fun.

So the more fun we make it for Tex, the better off he's gonna be.

He's gonna wanna work harder for you.

So everything is a a real big game.

He loves to go to work, he loves to play the game.

(lively music) When a lot of people think about K-9 tracking or trailing, probably it's portrayed through Hollywood and TV, is the dog's gonna go the exact location where the bad person went or the good person went.

That couldn't be any further from the truth.

(lively music continues) What it's basically called is a scent cone.

So as that person's walking away, running away from us, the scent's getting blown with the wind, with the environment, and the dog is gonna actually pick up that odor, whether it's 100 yards away, whether it's five feet away, whatever the distance may be.

And eventually he's gonna work it back to the strongest point.

(lively music continues) (door thuds) Once I get to the article of clothing, I'm gonna detach the leash to his training harness.

So now he knows once it goes on a training harness and I give him the command, find him, now that's gonna start our track, gonna start our trail.

(lively music continues) Tex knows one speed and that's 110%.

He catches odor.

And as the handler, I'm along for the ride.

I can't tell you how many times it's very rare that I'll be on the track with the dog, that I'm not usually on my stomach getting dragged behind him.

(dog barking) (leaves rustling) (dog barking) Find him.

(leaves rustling) (lively music continues) Good boy.

Good boy, good boy, good boy!

Good boy!

Good boy!

The dog gets accustomed to seeing the article, knowing that's the smell that we want him to smell with the command.

And eventually he learns to, "Every time I see that article and Dad gives me that command to find 'em, I'm gonna put my nose to that and follow that odor until we," again, until he finds the target at the end.

- Good boy.

- Good boy.

Good guy.

(mellow music) (door thuds) As far as Tex or any canine being everything for us, he's not a piece of equipment.

I don't work my 12-hour shift and then put him inside my locker and say, "Oh, see you tomorrow," like I would do with my other gear.

Tex comes home with me.

So on top of him being my partner at work, just as important is he's a family dog.

He's my dog at home, he's my buddy, he's my, you know, he's my son's brother.

So we have a phenomenal relationship at work, but just as important, if not more, of a great relationship at home.

It's a 24-hour, seven-day commitment, 365 days.

(lively music) Say bye-bye.

Me, I love my days off from work.

A dog, that's his worst days.

These dogs want to go to work.

They love working, they love riding in the police car.

They love being out in the public.

They love being out in the elements.

K-9 Diesel was my first K-9 dog.

I worked him for eight years.

And obviously, you could imagine a bond.

(lively music continues) Every day is different.

You know, you're not coming to work and it's the same paperwork, the same office.

You know, you're coming in, you never know what you're gonna do.

You might be helping an elderly person, you might be rolling around with a suspect.

You might be jumping in the water to save somebody or you might be helping a little kid cross the road.

So it kind of gives a wide variety.

And every day's a new day and it's never boring.

(lively music continues) So this morning we're actually gonna be going to the school that serves as the elementary school for Long Beach Island.

We're gonna go there, we're gonna talk to 'em about police dogs, specifically about shelter dogs being that Tex is from a shelter.

(gentle music) (children chattering) (children laughing) - [Children] I pledge allegiance to the flag of The United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

- So today we're at the elementary school for Long Beach Island, and we're gonna actually do a K-9 demonstration with K-9 Tex.

And we're gonna bring him in, kind of explain what he does, educate 'em about the shelter, and just let it be a real fun experience for the kids.

(children shriek) - Guys, we got a special treat for you today.

We have a new member of our department and he's from the shelter over in Manahawkin.

And I'd like to introduce Officer Thompson and Tex.

(children scream) - What's up, guys?

How's everyone doing?

(children scream) Okay, I got a question.

I got a quick question.

Anybody know what type of dog he is?

- [Children] Bloodhound!

- Man, you guys are good.

You guys are getting an A. And I'm giving you guys Monday off of school.

Good job.

We like to take our K-9 dogs into the school because that makes the kids feel comfortable to say there's a human side to police.

They see me if I go there and I'm just in uniform, they see a statue.

They see me going there with a dog that's jumping all around and I'm making goofy noises with the dog, they see a human behind that uniform.

And that dog builds a great bond between the police department and them.

Now, guess what?

Guess what?

He's a bloodhound.

And where do you think he came from?

What do you think?

Go ahead.

You guys can yell it out.

- Shelter!

- A shelter.

Now, okay, okay, let's talk about the shelter now.

He went from being a dog that was put in a cage that was given up by his owner for whatever reasons.

And he was actually capable of becoming now a police dog.

And all of a sudden, now, what's he doing?

He's got a badge, he's fighting crime, he's going out on the street, he's hanging out on the beach, he gets to drive in a police car, he gets to hear the sirens, the lights, he gets to do all this cool stuff.

So he went from being a dog that was kind of like, "Ah, you know what, I'm not really quite sure what's gonna happen 'cause I'm in the shelter," to being an awesome, awesome police dog.

So what we like to do is make sure that everyone knows that just because the dog's in a shelter, doesn't mean he doesn't stand a chance, right?

(children laughing) See?

You think shelter dogs love you?

Absolutely.

- I think they know that, you know, saving a dog, an animal from a shelter is something that they could do as well rather than go out and purchase a dog.

And that the dog really loved the officer, Officer Thompson.

I mean, this, it was just like a little bear and he's constantly hugging him.

And I think they saw that a dog that was saved from a shelter, I think, sometimes there's a misconception that a shelter dog might not be a caring dog and a loving dog.

And I think that was really good for them to see that.

- So does everyone loves dogs, right?

- Yeah.

- Okay.

Is it fair for a dog to be sitting behind a cage with no love?

- No.

- No.

And there's plenty of dogs out there.

So next time Mom or Dad wants to get a dog, or next time you guys wanna get a dog, when you guys come home with A on the report card, and Mom and Dad says, "We're gonna get you a dog," say, "Let's go to our local shelter and go check them out.

'cause they're just as good of dogs."

Okay, everyone, thank you guys, and we'll see you guys in, probably, in a couple more months with a new demo, okay?

We want you, guys.

(hands clapping) So I think it went great.

Obviously, you know, they're really excited to see the dog.

I really believe the fact that he's a big, sloppy, goofy bloodhound, really energizes them.

Bye-bye.

- Bye.

- Bye.

- Thank you.

- Maybe in 10, 15 years, when they're old enough to actually adopt dogs, their own, you know, they're gonna remember, "Hey, you know what?

When I was in fourth, fifth grade, I remember a police dog coming in, and he came from a shelter.

Now it's time to adopt.

You know, let's think about going to rescue a dog."

(mellow music) Good boy.

- I hear every event that Tex does.

I mean, from going to the different schools and just being a, you know, our ambassador, to going into neighborhoods, down the docks, people feel the police are more approachable if there's an animal there.

Here comes Tex's handler.

And everybody wants to see Tex.

(camera clicks) (person laughs) Good?

- So it humanizes our police department.

- I think if the police department's in a position to acquire a dog, I think they should actively pursue looking at shelter animals.

To give this animal a second chance, and a home, and a loving handler, and a community that can be proud of them, that just speaks volumes.

- Just a few months ago, Tex was sitting in a shelter, not really knowing where his life was gonna bring him.

A couple months later, he's now in the back of a brand new Long Beach Township police vehicle as one of our members as actually a police officer.

He's a very respected animal, not only in our police department, but the whole surrounding area.

Again, we call him our superhero because when our officers are having a hard time locating someone, they bring in the best of the best.

And that's our K-9 and which happens to be K-9 Tex.

(gentle piano music) ♪ I was in the game I was born to play ♪ ♪ Can't say what went wrong ♪ Or what gave way ♪ Never thought about giving up ♪ ♪ Or how it would end ♪ But here I am ♪ Starting over again ♪ It's the darkest dawn of a brand new day ♪ ♪ And it's hard to see ♪ But I'm finding fate ♪ Never thought I'd be so lost ♪ And alone in the end ♪ Here I am ♪ Starting over again ♪ Follow the river ♪ Back to the bend ♪ I'm starting over ♪ Again (gentle piano music continues) ♪ When I'm looking back ♪ I'll be glad I'm home ♪ I'll be thankful for ♪ Every winding road ♪ Never thought about what I would miss ♪ ♪ With no regret ♪ And here I am ♪ Starting over again ♪ Here I am ♪ Starting over again - People who foster pets are the unsung heroes of the shelter world.

When you foster, you provide a temporary home for a pet while you help find a new adopter.

Most shelters and rescues have these programs in place or can easily set them up.

Fostering is meaningful, fun, and most importantly, it saves lives.

(gentle music) - [Narrator] I am the bridge between what was and what can be.

I am the pathway to a new life.

I am made of mush because my heart melted when I saw you.

Lonely, unwanted, afraid to love.

For one little time, you are mine.

I will feed you with my own hand.

I will love you with my whole heart.

I will make you whole.

I am made of steel, because when the time comes, when you are well and sleek, when your eyes shine and your tail wags with joy, then comes the hard part.

I will let you go.

Not without a tear, but without a regret.

For you are safe forever.

A new dog needs me now.

- [Child] How old is he?

- [Mike] Yeah, he is actually one and a half years old in human life.

So what's that in doggy years?

- [Child] Well, seven.

- So seven plus three and a half.

So he's 10 a half years old.

How old are you guys?

- 11.

(children shouting) Welcome to your new classmate.

- Petco Love Lost.

A national lost and found pet database can help, using image recognition technology.

So every pet can be back where they belong.

- Oh my baby - Home with the families that love them.

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