Photos: New Brunswick Police Department Has New K9

This post was submitted by Jennifer Bradshaw, a spokeswoman for the City of New Brunswick

The New Brunswick Police Department has a new officer among its ranks that is equipped with boundless energy and enthusiasm for the job.

“Moose” is a 21-month-old chocolate brown Labrador Retriever that has joined the department as a single-purpose scent dog trained to detect narcotics. Handled by Detective John Drury, Moose comes from Positive Response Canines of Jackson, Tenn., a company that specializes in the training of K9s for use by law enforcement agencies.

Moose is trained to detect marijuana, cocaine, crack, heroin, ecstasy and methamphetamines. When called to a scene to search for drugs, Moose sniffs and searches the area and when he hits on a scent, is trained to scratch and paw at the site. A positive identification will result in Drury providing Moose with a towel to chew and playtime.

In order to train Moose for his career in law enforcement, he and Drury attended two weeks of training with Positive Response Canines, followed by 10 weeks of training with the New Jersey State Police.

Moose successfully completed training this past June and started working with the New Brunswick Police Department in July. His training has not stopped, as Moose and Drury continue to train weekly to ensure that he remains fit and trained to perform his duties.

Despite being on the job for only a few months, Moose’s resume is already shaping up. Six successful narcotics searches have yielded the seizure of more than $27,000 in street value of marijuana, heroin and crack, as well as $8,439 in cash. He is the first narcotics detection dog to be a part of the New Brunswick Police Department.

Moose is in the company of “Odin” a five-year-old German Shepard trained in explosives detection that joined the department in 2011. Odin and Moose are both handled by Drury, who sees to their housing and care as well as their continued training.

“These highly trained, specialized K9s are part of our police department family,” said Police Director Anthony Caputo. “Odin and Moose serve our department well by working with our officers to sniff out explosives and narcotics, which provides another level of safety and security for our community.”

Moose and Odin are among a limited number of law enforcement K9’s serving in in Middlesex County. As a result, Drury and the dogs are available to assist law enforcement agencies throughout central New Jersey, and have worked high profile events such as the 2014 Superbowl.

Drury’s first K9 Jamison retired from the New Brunswick Police Department in 2013 following approximately 10 years of service with the department as an explosives detection dog.