Phillipston Police Department welcomes new K-9 officer Ziva

PHILLIPSTON – The Phillipston Police Department recently welcomed Ziva, its newest K-9 officer, who comes with years of experience working with other departments.

Ziva, a 4-year-old bloodhound, joined the department two weeks ago and will be under the supervision of Officer Laura Gordon, who herself joined the department in a part-time capacity last October.

Gordon said she has been working with Ziva in other departments for the past few years, and will now primarily serve Phillipston. The K-9 is trained as a comfort dog and in “mantrailing,” a K-9 discipline where dogs are trained to identify and follow a person’s unique scent. Recently, the pair went to Maryland for re-certification in trailing.

Gordon said a comfort dog is brought in to help in the wake of traumatic events.

“My husband and I are actually the founders of the comfort dog program in law enforcement,” she said, adding that she works out of Greenfield and her husband is retired Greenfield Deputy Police Chief William Gordon.

Comfort dogs, said Laura Gordon, are used to “help victims or possibly first responders. You can bring the dog in if the person or family is interested and it gives them the chance to focus, even if only for a few minutes, on something more positive than what they’re going through.”

In one instance, she said, “We had a young child who actually found her mother deceased, and we were able to bring the dog in, take the child to another location, and give her something positive to focus on for a while. The dogs can do any type of therapy with a child, or if there’s a case that goes to court, we can be used at the court.”

She said last week the pair visited the elementary school in Templeton “and there were certain students she just kind of automatically went to and curled up with them. There were some great moments.”

Phillipston Police Chief Bill Chapman said, “Comfort dogs have been around for a while, but recently it has become all the rage. Almost every department now is going out and getting a comfort dog….Where Laura already has a trained bloodhound who does trailing, our feeling was why not also train Ziva as a comfort dog. She can serve us in both ways.”

Chapman said one of the first things he was asked by the Selectboard when he was hired as chief was when he could get a bloodhound program up and running. Training for Ziva is paid for through a grant from the Worcester County District Attorney’s Office.

“We initially brought her (Laura) on as a consultant – she’s very good in the accreditation arena – and then we were able to turn her into a part-time officer and be our K-9 handler with Ziva,” he said.

“In terms of the comfort dog, we’re doing something unique. We’re working with the Ashburnham Police Department and the district attorney’s office and we’re establishing a comfort dog program and a trailing dog program,” Chapman added. “To the best of my knowledge, I’d say we’re kind of leading the way in that. We’re getting away of just using a comfort dog or just a trailing dog.”

While bloodhounds are naturally good-natured and work well with people, they still have to go through what’s known as Canine Good Citizen training, which lasts for about six weeks.

“We’re slowly adding more of the comfort dog work (for Ziva),” said Laura Gordon. “Sometimes it takes a little time, but they definitely can do it. And they need to understand being in larger crowds, because when we’re trailing, we’re not usually in a crowd. She needs to learn to be around fire trucks and their support teams, being around an ambulance, and exposing them to various types of trauma scenes. It’s exposing her to more and more of that.”