By Genevieve Judge, Local News 8 Reporter

BANNOCK COUNTY - In September, Local News 8 introduced you to the newest member of the Chubbuck police force.  At just three years old, he's gained quite a bit of knowledge and continues to work taking bites out of crime.  The Chubbuck Police Department was able to buy their newest member thanks to drug seizure money.

Chubbuck Police K-9 Officer Shane Call is in his seventh week training Marco.  It's part of a nine week course to get Marco ready to respond to calls and also to save time and money.

"It saves the officer a tremendous amount of time to call a k9 officer out, bring his dog around the vehicle and do a K-9 sniff.  Saves ton of man hours so they don't have to pick it apart by hand," said Call.

Bannock County Sheriff's Deputy and K-9 handler Clint Brown is in charge of working with two K-9s to get them ready to get on the road.  Brown says training police K-9s is a complicated task.

"When we deploy our dogs on the street, we want the dogs to be reliable and certified and this is the best way we've found to do it," said Brown.

K-9s can be used in a variety of situations so dogs are available when officers need them.

"Other officers and other agencies can call on us for assistance with the dogs.  But it also depends on how much the individual officer, the handler of that dog, wants to utilize the dog.  I use my dog quite often with drug cases and traffic stops," said Brown.

During training Marco worked on finding suspects using sent.  Once he found the suspect, he told Officer Call by barking.  When the suspect took off, Marco is training to run and when told he stops and waits.

"I've noticed a tremendous difference with me and Marco.  Progression from just the stuff that the course is required to have you certified and I've noticed a tremendous difference in Marco especially," said Call.

K9 officers like Officer Call have their dogs with them a majority of the time so it creates a unique bond between the two of them.

"The dogs are generally with you more than family because the dogs go home with you and then also go to work with you.  And often times in critical situations where the dog may come into play to assist you or to even save your life, there is a tremendous bond that can be created as well," said Brown.

This K9 training course will wrap up in about two weeks.  Then it's up to the officers to certify their dogs before getting them on the streets.