WORCESTER – Police cars lined the parking lot at Shore Park and the sounds of dogs barking could be heard from the street Tuesday as state police trained a few K-9 units from as far way as Gloucester and New York to find narcotics.

Sgt. Jerry Molet, of the Massachusetts State Police, said this program is for dogs making the next step in their training. And Tuesday’s class, part of a nine-week program, was to teach the dogs to dig in the sand on the Shore Park beach to search for narcotics. These are dogs that can already track on the street, but now they’re being given another lesson on how to find narcotics that are hidden from plain sight or buried.

“We use the sand to search for narcotics and shape behavior,” Melot said.

Gloucester K-9 officer Jerry Ciolino and his dog Trident go through the training. Ciolino gives Trident a verbal and physical command to search the sand for a tightly wrapped towel that has the scent of marijuana on it. The dogs will eventually be trained to be able to find cocaine, marijuana, heroin and methamphetamines.

http://www.masslive.com/news/worcester/index.ssf/2013/04/police_k-9_units_get_training.html