The Durham County Sheriff’s Office has an extensive K-9 Unit dedicated to serving the surrounding communities – but some of the dogs are more specialized than others.

Reggie looks like your ordinary black lab.

This two-year-old is playful, full of energy and has the typical dilemma of wanting you to throw his ball without being asked to let go of it.

The main difference between Reggie and your average household pet is that he and his owner Steven Foster go to work at the same place every day at the Durham County Sheriff’s Office.

It’s there where Steven is known as Deputy Foster, and is not just Reggie’s loving dog dad but his handler as part of the departments K-9 Unit.

Reggie has a few more certifications than your average Labrador. Together, he and Deputy Foster work the Civil Division for the sheriff’s office and are specially trained to sniff out explosives.

During training sessions, Deputy Foster leads Reggie through a narrow hallway within the Durham County Sheriff’s Office – checking behind locked doors, around filing cabinets and inside trash cans for explosive materials that have been carefully hidden out of sight.

Deputy Foster has done an extensive certification and training course with Reggie via the International Police Work Dog Association. This course taught the pair how to detect over 20 explosive odors. This comes in handy during their work doing protective sweeps of the city.

Foster and Reggie work together to check the surrounding areas before big events like sporting matches or 5Ks. They also help monitor the courthouse and detention facility for hazardous objects.

Foster said Reggie was only 8 weeks old when he began his training getting “imprinted” with different odors. In other words, Reggie was exposed to these different smells from a young age and was positively reinforced so he could clearly identify and detect them down the line.

“It can be something as simple as a bunch of odors in a bunch of paint cans,” Foster said. “They get to the one they want to imprint them on, pay them a treat or a ball, and the dog automatically remembers ‘hey last time I smelled this I got a toy or a treat.’ It’s just repetition more than anything. Reinforcing them with toys and as you can see, he absolutely loves his toy.”

This toy in a question is small Kong, molded into the shape of a grenade.

“He does all that work just for that little grenade toy,” Foster said. “Of course since he’s a bomb dog we got him a grenade toy.”

When the work day is over, Reggie and Deputy Foster get to go home to their family together. Foster said that, while he has a duty to train Reggie and manage his upkeep, their relationship extends far outside the office.

“On paper, he’s technically a piece of equipment owned by the county of Durham but they know when you get applicants for something like this you’re getting somebody that’s not going to just view it like that – even if you wanted to,” Foster said. “It’s always going to end up being a member of the family too.”

For more information on the Durham County Sheriff’s K-9 Unit, visit their website.

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