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And one time I went to a K9 training at the Washington State Patrol’s headquarters where they kept all their old police cars,
and also where they outfitted their new cars. Both operations were interesting; I talked to the civilian mechanics there who
explained to me that they set up over 300 new police cars annually. Meaning they got the cars from the factory and then they
added the police radios, the lightbars and extra emergency lighting, and the computer system, push bars in the front, partition
in the middle, strobe lights in the corners, graphics on the side, etc. One of the guys there told me that they had an efficiency
expert come in recently and he showed them how they could save time on the installation process by reorganizing where they
kept their parts and supplies and so they set up a system to literally line up everything in the right order so all the parts and
pieces would be ready at the right time. So before, it took 19 hours of labor to install everything and get a car ready. After they
figured out how to order and line up all the equipment the best way, they were down to 15 hours total per car. Times that by 300
and you’re talking about some significant time and money savings.

The training there was with a bunch of state patrol troopers and their dogs; we spent a day sniffing out hidden drugs in the old
patrol car junkyard. Actually I just watched since I didn’t have a dog yet; but watching other handlers is a very good way to learn
about the craft. The place there had a combination of cars retired from old age and cars that had been in collisions or accidents,
and most of them had been gutted or had parts removed to repair other cars. The place was very interesting; there were literally
hundreds of old police cars there. And they also kept the state police SWAT vehicles on standby by there.

Okay so in August of 2014 I flew into Orlando Florida, got a rental car and found my way over to New Smyrna Beach where the
Southern Coast K9 Training Center was located. It was run by a retired Florida cop named Bill Heiser, and he had several
professional dog trainers working for him. Once or twice a month a new group of student officers would show up to get a two
week course in basic dog handling. Southern Coast K9 was just a little north of Daytona. Almost every afternoon it poured
torrentially for an hour or two, complete with huge clouds and thunder and lightning.