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Urgo's work helping Warren subdue the combative suspect represents just one role for more than a dozen dogs that work in police agencies in Benton and Washington counties.

Departments say dogs are important in police work to help find drugs, track suspects and sniff out explosives. But dogs aren't a budget priority when departments are understaffed and have other needs, such as purchasing equipment, police officers said.

The initial cost to buy a dog is $8,000 to $10,000, and it may cost as much as $4,500 for food, equipment, training and veterinarian bills throughout the year, according to one local department's budget. Officers usually are compensated for extra time they spend with their dogs. And there are sometimes surprise costs, such as one department that had to pay nearly $5,000 to replace a police dog's four damaged teeth.

Still, the officers who work with police dogs said many reasons justify the costs.

A man in Gentry gave Highfill police a 4-year-old German shepherd, Judah, more than a year ago, said his handler, Sgt. Eric Jones. Jones spent a lot of time initially bonding with Judah, allowing the dog to become comfortable around his family and home, he said. Police dogs are constantly with their handlers.

"It's different than human partners," Jones said. "I trust my dog more than any human. I know, no doubt, that dog would lay down his life for me in a heartbeat."

Blecky, a 3-year-old a German shepherd, and his partner, Fayetteville Police Cpl. Robin Fields, work as one.

On a cold morning in September, Blecky helped with a drug search by sniffing lockers at Woodland Junior High. Blecky bolted for the front door and dug at the tile floor with his paws. His breathing intensified with each pull against the leash. A smiling Fields held tight.

The two knew the routine. Sniff the lockers to find the drugs. Each had practiced this through hours of training every week since Blecky was 11 months old.

Fields tapped on a locker to guide Blecky where to search.

"Find it, find it," Fields said, pointing at lockers he wanted Blecky to sniff. The two never separated more than a few feet.

When Blecky didn't scratch on any lockers, Fields moved his hand toward the other side of the room. Blecky jumped on cabinets, crawled across benches and when he found nothing again, returned to his partners' side.

One of the main reasons Northwest Arkansas departments want police dogs is to assist in finding illegal drugs.

The Methamphetamine Precursor Control Act of 2005 slashed the number of meth labs locally by putting cold medicines used in manufacturing behind pharmacy counters and by limiting the amounts sold, police said. But the law has had little impact on the transportation of methamphetamine from California and Mexico into the area, officials said.

Police dogs are trained and certified through organizations like the National Narcotic Detection Dog Association to find marijuana, methamphetamine, cocaine and heroin.

Humans can't detect the scent of most drugs, but dogs can easily smell them.

Fields offered an analogy on how dogs can break down smells.

A person walks into a kitchen and smells a stew cooking on the stove. When a dog walks into the kitchen and smells the stew, it can break down every ingredient brewing in the pot, Fields said. The dog does the same thing when unmasking narcotics in a vehicle, he said.

Several Supreme Court rulings, including U.S. v. Place, state that a dogs' sniff does not constitute a search under the Fourth Amendment, which protects citizens against unreasonable searches and seizures without probable cause.

If a dog indicates it smells drugs in a vehicle, this gives police probable cause to search for drugs without having a search warrant, said Rogers police Cpl. David Crawford.

Courts have ruled that the air around a vehicle is not owned nor protected by anyone, therefore dogs can sniff away, Fields said.

Police dogs quickly can pay for themselves by finding cash during drug busts, officials said.

The Carroll County Sheriff Office's new dog, Ringo, a 2-year-old Holland shepherd, found drugs in a vehicle on his first day on the job, said Sheriff Robert Grudek.

Urgo has found 9,896 grams of methamphetamine, 379 grams of marijuana and $250,108 in cash during drug arrests, according to police reports.

Warren and Urgo are the 2008 state champions in patrol work and the 2006 runners-up, Warren said. The competition entails obedience work, narcotics searches and apprehension of suspects. The obedience work is judged like the Olympics, with each segment worth so many points, Warren said.

Urgo's four-legged comrade, Bo, a Belgian Malinois, has found 1,758 grams of methamphetamine, 2,372 grams of marijuana and has helped seize about $25,000 in cash since April 2006, said Crawford, his handler.

Almost all of the work Urgo does involves narcotics, including finding narcotics in schools, Warren said.

Bentonville police Lt. Mike Smith said the public benefits by having police dogs on the street because drug crimes are often connected with other crimes.

There also are two dogs in Northwest Arkansas trained to detect explosives.

After the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the Pentagon and World Trade Center, to ensure the safety of employees from threats, Wal-Mart purchased an explosive detection German shepherd named Maverick to help check for unattended items left around the home office and corporate events.

Instead of immediately evacuating buildings and creating a panic, officials can have Maverick determine quickly if unattended items are dangerous, said Patty Morgan, Maverick's handler.

Maverick is trained in detecting black and smokeless powder. He's also used as a goodwill ambassador at public events and sweeps Donald W. Reynolds Razorback Stadium in Fayetteville before every football game to check for explosives.

The Bentonville Police Department also has an explosive detection dog named Merlin, handled by Guary Morgan, Patty Morgan's husband.

Officers must spend more than 16 hours a month training with their dogs to stay certified. Rogers police train every Tuesday with their dogs with the help of two officers, Cpl. Mike Lira and Officer Rick Yeager, stepping in as decoys. The decoys don a padded suit that covers them from shoulders to feet to help the handlers train their dogs in bite work and apprehension.

The dogs' training is recorded, and if needed, can be produced in a court case to show the dog's experience, Crawford said.

Police also hide drugs in vehicles to give dogs experience finding them. A good narcotics detection dog has a passionate toy drive. Often police dogs go crazy over tennis balls or rope toys, officials said. Police dogs are trained to associate the smell of narcotics with the desire to find their toy, Fields said.

Narcotics training involves a tennis ball put under a clear plastic scratch box with holes in the top. The dog will scratch the top of the box indicating a desire for the ball. Then police will switch out the ball for marijuana or methamphetamine, teaching the dog to associate the smells of the drugs with its desire for getting its toy, Fields said.

When a dog searches a vehicle for drugs, it's really looking for its tennis ball or toy, Fields said.

Dogs "alert" on drugs with either passive or aggressive behavior. Passive dogs may alert by sitting completely still and staring straight ahead. Aggressive dogs may bark or scratch on locations where they sense drugs.

During a practice on Oct. 28, Lira and Yeager hid narcotics in several vehicles so Urgo and Bo could practice searching.

Bo picked up on a scent but wanted to move under the car, instead of around it. Bo was quickly down on his two front legs, crawling under the grill and then looking back at Crawford.

There, just inches away from Bo's nose, was the box of hidden drugs.

A dog may alert to drugs or a smell left behind by drugs that once were stored in a vehicle. Dogs can smell any traces of drug residue on pipes, money or on vehicle dashboards, said Springdale Police Sgt. Robert Sanchez.

Often people will try to mask the smell of drugs with coffee grains, salt or other substance, Sanchez said, but that doesn't work.

Through training, a handler learns how to recognize a dog's alert, including changes in a dog's breathing and demeanor. If a dog is well documented to not typically crawl under vehicles during training but does in the field, this is abnormal behavior and enough probable cause to search a vehicle, Crawford said.

Some agencies would like to add dogs to their programs, but that's not always possible.

The Benton County Sheriff's Office has two police dogs and would like to add a third. But the sheriff's office must have an adequate number of field deputies before choosing another handler, said Capt. Mike Jones.

The same goes for the Rogers Police Department. The main reason the department doesn't have a third dog is because of a need to fill officer vacancies, said Chief Steve Helms.

Springdale police won't consider adding a third dog until the department gets needed equipment for officers, Sanchez said.

Springdale Chief Kathy O'Kelley recently requested a cost analysis for the department to purchase another dog in 2009, Sanchez said. The analysis projected $10,000 for a new dog, compared with the roughly $6,500 the department spent on each of its two dogs more than five years ago, he said.

"I don't think it's been an issue to convince the chief on the use of a canine," Sanchez said.

The Washington County Sheriff's Office doesn't feel it can yet justify purchasing a third dog, said Lt. Scott Young. The sheriff's office also lacks officers qualified to be handlers. The department had a 50 percent turnover in manpower in the last three years, Young said. Deputies who wish to be handlers must have two years experience and give a five-year commitment, he added.

For 25 years, the late Kathryn Stout of Fayetteville donated the department money to buy police dogs. Her only stipulation: They must be all black and German shepherds. Stout died in June.

Police don't know who may step up to fill Stout's shoes in donating money, said Capt. Mike Reynolds. Without assistance from a private donor, the department will have to request the purchases through its annual budget process, Reynolds said. That process may be difficult during tough economic times.

Having more than a dozen dual-purpose police dogs in Northwest Arkansas isn't enough, Guary Morgan said. "There's always work," he said.

Police dogs' value goes beyond police work. They're also used in educating students on drug awareness. Many agencies demonstrate the dogs' abilities in finding drugs.

Springdale Police also travel to schools to demonstrate Aros and Aldo, their two German shepherds, in obedience work and narcotic detection.

"The demonstrations show kids that a dog can really find drugs," Sanchez said. "Hopefully the image will stay in their minds to steer clear of drugs."

Midge with the Geauga County Sheriff's Office in Ohio is listed in the Guinness Book of Worlds Records as the worlds' smallest police dog. Midge is just 8 pounds and a cross between a rat terrier and chihuahua. Sheriff Dan McClelland began training Midge on narcotic detection when she was 3 months old. Midge passed her drug certification by the Ohio Attorney General's office when she was a year old.

The military asked Americans to donate dogs to the "K-9 Corps" after the bombing of Pearl Harbor. Dogs were trained to guard soldiers, move quietly to find snipers and detect mines.

After the war, dogs were returned to their owners. Since then, more than 1,500 dogs served during the Korean War and 4,000 during the Vietnam War. Today, the U.S. Army has 578 dogs in Iraq and Afghanistan.

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