Four years ago, when Rush Valley resident Karen Davis bought her first dog, an Australian shepherd cattle dog named Luna, she found out the dog's birthday was Sept. 11. She decided Luna would be going into the search and rescue field and has been training dogs ever since.

Now Davis has three dogs who all work as service dogs, one of which was POST (peace officer standards and training) certified on Friday through the Utah Police Academy as a drug detector dog.

She's only had this dog, named Jari, for two months. He is a multi-task dog who works on a variety of tasks. He is a narcotics detector and does tracking article, evidence, buildings and compound searches. Davis acquired the 5-year-old Belgian malinois mix through a police department in the Salt Lake Valley. She wanted a new dog to train for drug detector work and Jari's previous handler told her that he would be euthanized that following Monday.

Davis said her experience acquiring Jari has taught her to never say never.

"I said I never wanted a Belgian and I never wanted a male because they have some issues and I never wanted an older one, or a dog that's been trained," she said.

After a conversation with "the man upstairs," Davis decided to convince her husband, Mace, to take the dog in and keep it from being euthanized.

Now, Jari is the only POST-certified dog in Utah since 2003.

"He's the sweetest dog and through POST training we have re-trained him to be a kinder gentler dog," Davis said. "He passed the POST certification with flying colors for the police search and rescue certification."

What Davis really wants to do is use Jari's drug detector certification as a community service for parents who have a suspicion their children might be using drugs.

"My hope is for Jari's drug detector service to benefit the community and for the parents to deal with the child appropriately and the drugs disposed of properly," Davis said.

She has been given the OK by Tooele County Sheriff Frank Park, but she is allowed to have a drug detector dog. She received permission from Park to go to the police canine training, otherwise she would not have been able to attend the training.

"The parents would then deal with the kids and the drugs," she said. "It gives the parents an option instead of having the kids hauled off to jail. That's what I hope I can use him for."

Davis hopes to do this as an alternative for parents who don't want to call the police on their child. She is trying to be a buffer between parents and kids and the sheriff's department.

"I'm not an officer, not a deputy or a police officer in any way shape or form," Davis said. "I'm just a volunteer. I just want to keep the drugs out of kids' hands at the beginning of the problem."

She worked as a volunteer for Tooele County's canine search and rescue, a volunteer for the 4-H group, a volunteer firefighter and rescued horses and other animals. Due to a back injury, Davis is no longer a firefighter and can't rescue horses, although at one time she had six mustangs and a one-eyed Palomino. She currently houses a rescued mule, a rooster and some ducks, but her main focus is on training her service dogs.

She also trains companion service dogs for elderly people. After training the dogs -- usually Shih Tzus and Chihuahuas -- she gives the dogs to them. All of these dogs have been rescued, none are purchased.

Luna is also a multi-task dog who specializes in life-find and is trained in cadaver work. Luna has been trained in the POST program, but isn't certified yet.

"POST wants dogs to have really high drive dogs," Davis said. "Luna doesn't have the drive so she's trained to the equivalent."

Luna doesn't get as excited or energetic about things as the other dogs who are POST-certified like Jari.

This summer, Davis hopes to have Luna certified in PSAR (police search and rescue) through POST.

"I know she can do it, but she doesn't do it as fast and as energetic as other dogs," she said.

Davis' youngest dog, Diogi, is a 1-year-old Australian shepherd border collie. She has gone through POST but only as a part of socialization training.

"POST doesn't like to train dogs younger than 2 years old," Davis said. "It's a two-month training course and it's way too stressful for a puppy."

Diogi will be a single-purpose dog and will train only in cadaver work.

"We get a lot more body recoveries out here [in Tooele County] than life-finds," she said.

Davis' work as a firefighter helped her further her opportunities for training service dogs. She started training as a firefighter two years ago and went through the first two stages of training before a back injury halted her abilities to be a firefighter.

"Wildland firefighter training is awesome for search and rescue. It's great cross training," she said. "You can do more with the dogs as a public service than firefighter training."

Because Davis works as a volunteer, her husband, Mace, who works at EG&G, is her financial support. He also helps out when Davis trains the dogs.

"As a victim he goes out and hides and lets the dogs find him," she said. "He goes and sets cadaver material out, he doesn't like doing that but does it anyway."

Whether it's Jari finding drugs, Luna helping find live victims or Diogi looking for those who may have passed away, Davis' work as a volunteer and service dog trainer in Tooele County is an important part to the community.

missy@tooeletranscript.com