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  • Henry Petree walks his drug dog, Gizzie, through the hallways of Oktaha High School on Wednesday. Petree, a school resource officer for six area schools, said Gizzie serves as a deterrent to keep students out of trouble.

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  • Gizzie makes a “hit” for drugs in a cabinet at Oktaha High Schools. Petree hid marijuana in the cabinet and brought Gizzie, his drug dog, in to show how fast the Labrador could find hidden drugs. Gizzie sniffed for about 30 seconds before making the hit.

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January 4, 2012

Canine on patrol

Drug-sniffing labrador walks the halls at area schools

By Dylan Goforth Phoenix Staff Writer

— Gizzie, a black Labrador, looks happy and harmless. As students at Oktaha Schools walked through the hallways, they would pet her head or scratch behind her ears.

But when it’s time to get to business, Gizzie, an almost 3-year-old drug dog, wastes no time.

Henry Petree, who serves as a school resource officer for six area schools, said it can be expensive for schools to hire someone to bring a drug dog to the school. Petree said Oktaha, Haskell, Midway, Webbers Falls, Porter and Braggs schools cooperated to help bring him and Gizzie together.

“I’m working for these schools and I started thinking, you know, we could have our own dog for way cheaper than it costs to bring a dog in,” Petree said. “It would cost more to have someone bring a dog in for just two days than it does for me to have this dog myself.

“And Gizzie can be at these schools every day.”

Petree said he takes Gizzie to each school “at least once a week.” While there he said they walk through the hallways, pass the lockers and work the cars in the parking lot.

“It serves as a pretty good deterrent,” Petree said. “Once these kids see what Gizzie can do, they know she’s for real.”

Petree began training with Gizzie before Thanksgiving break, and said they’ve been in the schools since that break ended.

“As far as ability goes, Gizzie is as good as it gets,” Petree said. “I’ll put her up against any other dog out there. She’s as good as it gets, I’m just a novice.”

Petree said when he approached the schools with the idea, he wanted them to know he would get a dog that would be safe for all the students.

“I wanted to get a dog that I could take through the high schools to search, but that could also go to an elementary school and the kids would be safe,” Petree said. “I wanted to get a dog that would lay down and kids could pull on her ears or whatever and she would be OK with that. And Gizzie is as gentle as could be.”

As a demonstration of Gizzie’s ability, Petree had Oktaha schools employees hide a bag of marijuana in an administration break room. After a few minutes, he brought Gizzie in and began to get her warmed up.

“They begin training them with toys,” Petree said. “She won’t start smelling without the ball.”

After Petree had Gizzie play with the ball for a minute, he pretended to throw it, and hid the ball behind his back. From that point on, Gizzie was on the hunt.

Gizzie smelled around the room for around 30 seconds before hitting on the cabinet where the drugs where hidden. Once she smelled the marijuana, she began to scratch at the door.

“She’s a really passive dog, so she’s trained to be more aggressive when she makes a hit,” Petree said. “A more aggressive dog, like a German Shepherd, might be trained to be more passive and would lay down when they made a hit.”

Oktaha Schools Superintendent Jerry Needham said Petree and Gizzie do more for the six schools they cover than just finding drugs in lockers.

“It’s more than that,” Needham said. “It’s not about finding one kid with drugs, necessarily. It’s about protecting the other 750 kids at Oktaha schools and all the other kids at the other schools.”

Reach Dylan Goforth at (918) 684-2903 or dgoforth@muskogeephoenix.com.

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