The public got the chance to meet the eight members that make up the Anchorage Police Department's K-9 Unit on Saturday, during an open house at the Conoco Phillips building downtown.
The handlers demonstrated different scenarios that showed the audience what the dogs are capable of.
Sgt. Jason Schmidt says the dogs are a critical part of the police department and are trained in tracking, searching and drug detection. It's a unit that is expensive but gets funding assistance from the non-profit Dollars for Dogs.
"The dogs are very social and they do public demonstrations for schools and things like that, but when they go to work at night, they turn it on, they're going to work," says Schmidt.
To learn more about the dogs or to donate to the program, visit the organization's website.
