By Luke Wesson
wesson@northkitsapherald.com

POULSBO — Poulsbo’s newest addition to its police force understands German, has run a marathon, and expects to retire in 12 years.

Kilo, a German Shepard/Malinois, is the department’s new K-9, trained to sniff out cocaine, heroin and meth. The department hopes Kilo will help deter drug use and drug sales in Poulsbo. Kilo lives with his handler, Officer Nick Hoke.

Kilo is 18 months old, 68 pounds, loves greeting visitors and walking the waterfront docks with Hoke, and is expected to have a 12-year career with the department. And he’s strong: His jaws are capable of applying up to 2,000 pounds per square inch of pressure, which made it a challenge to get him to give up his Kong-brand toy reward during training, Hoke said.

Hoke volunteered for the K-9 unit to challenge himself and because he believes in its effectiveness. “I think every department needs a K-9 unit,” he said. He trained to be a handler for two weeks in Florida.

When Kilo is not in uniform, he lives at home with the officer and his family. Kilo and the Hokes even ran a 10K together recently in Seattle. Kilo finished the race with energy to spare.

“The next day, he was quite disappointed when I had to sit down and explain to him that [the 10K] was not actually going to be a daily event, it was a one-time thing,” Hoke said.

That night, Kilo showed that he can jump the fence.

“Five escapes in two days equals a lot of new gray hair for me, which will start showing up any day now,” Hoke said. The family is also teaching Kilo to not dig holes in the lawn. This well-trained K-9 is all dog.

The K-9 unit is still a few hours short of becoming state certified, and  Kilo will have to complete 200 hours of on-the-job training before being put on active duty. During a recent visit, Hoke hid three drug stashes in the police station at City Hall. Kilo had no trouble sniffing them out.

“The entire police department is grateful for the community support, including and especially the cash donations,” Hoke said. “Before too long — if it hasn’t happened already — the majority of the criminals living in and passing through our city will hear about Kilo the drug dog and they will certainly think twice before considering setting up any kind of a drug house in the city.”