EVERETT — Everett police officer Matt Mekelburg met Kodiak in 2008, when the German shepherd was just 10 months old.
They put in more than 400 hours of training to become partners, Mekelburg told two dozen Everett middle school and high school students gathered at the Eisenhower Middle School on Wednesday afternoon.
Kodiak, one of the city’s four patrol dogs, and his handler gave a presentation for the week-long Junior Police Academy organized by the Everett Police Department during spring break each year.
The students asked questions and took notes. When Kodiak retires, does Mekelburg get to keep him? Why can’t Kodiak eat pizza?
Someone asked if it was easy to train the dog.
“No, it’s the most difficult thing I’ve ever done. It’s very, very humbling,” Mekelburg said.
He told students that Kodiak is trained to heed commands in German, English and hand signals. In his short career as a police dog, he has already captured about 40 suspects and recovered more than a dozen pieces of evidence.
The students saw Kodiak in action as he sniffed out evidence hidden in a planter box outside the school. They watched the dog find a hiding suspect, played by another officer, and chase him across the sports field.
Five students are selected from five Everett schools to participate in the academy. The kids learn about police work hands-on.
In an exercise held earlier on Wednesday, the students divided into teams and learned how to do a building search.
Everett High School students Makaela Nellams, 16, Cameron Newman, 17, and Jacob Taylor, 17, crept through an auditorium, holding mock rifles at low-ready and watching each other’s backs. School Resource Officer Meg Nelson watched them.
The exercise was to teach them teamwork, observation and communication skills, she said.
Newman, who is interested in law enforcement, was nominated for the academy by his Naval Junior ROTC commander. The building search exercise really gave him an inside look into police work, the student said.
“Police officers can have a bad rap, but this really shows what goes through their heads when they are just trying to keep safe,” he said.
Katya Yefimova: 425-339-3452, kyefimova@heraldnet.com.
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