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Meet Asko, One Of Fayetteville’s Police Dogs

FAYETTEVILLE (KFSM) – Meet Asko, one of the two K-9 units with the Fayetteville Police Department. He’s a solid 120 pounds of pure German Shepherd. ...
Asko
Meet Asko, One Of Fayetteville’s Police Dogs

FAYETTEVILLE (KFSM) – Meet Asko, one of the two K-9 units with the Fayetteville Police Department.

He’s a solid 120 pounds of pure German Shepherd.

Asko’s partner is Cpl. Jason McDaniel, and they’ve worked together for two years.

All K9 units with the Fayetteville Police Department are imported from Europe, and the animals start training one year after they’re born, McDaniel said. The department buys their dogs through a company in Little Rock that imports them from countries like Hungary and Germany, according to McDaniel. Even the commands that he gives to Asko are in Hungarian.

The previous handler for Asko was deployed into active duty overseas, and McDaniel became Asko’s new partner. He said it took a few months for the dog to get used to him.

Asko is trained to find narcotics, track people on the run and apprehend fleeing suspects. McDaniel said he is trained to sniff out four different drugs including marijuana, cocaine, methamphetamine and heroin.

Police dogs can be trained to either detect explosives or narcotics, but no dogs are trained to smell both, according to McDaniel. The two dogs that the Fayetteville Police Department has are trained to detect narcotics. The closest bomb-detection dogs are owned by the University of Arkansas Police Department, McDaniel said.

When an officer is partnered with a K-9 unit, the Fayetteville Police Department pays to have a kennel constructed at that officer’s residence, according to McDaniel. The animal lives with their handler, and when the dog has worked for as long as it can, typically about seven years, the officer partnered with it has the option to adopt the animal. Asko is five years old, and McDaniel said he adopted his former K-9 unit after it was retired.

“It’s more my wife’s dog now,” he said.

Asko has his own bullet-proof vest, and he trains with McDaniel one day per week for several hours. McDaniel said many of the K-9 officers from surrounding departments get together to train.

“He’s smart. I have to change things up every now and then,” McDaniel said.

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