CHARDON, Ohio — Though she's only a 6-pound Chihuahua-rat terrier mix who looks like she belongs in Paris Hilton's purse, Midge has the will, skill and nose of a 100-pound German shepherd.
The newest recruit for the Geauga County Sheriff Department's K-9 unit could very well be the nation's smallest drug-sniffing pooch.
"Good girl," Sheriff Dan McClelland says, praising the 7-month-old puppy, during a recent training exercise.
McClelland began training Midge for drug-detecting duties when she was just 3 months old, after reading about departments being sued by suspects whose cars or homes were damaged by larger dogs.
McClelland's idea of using smaller dogs was reinforced when he returned from vacationing in Canada and saw U.S. Customs officials using beagles to sniff luggage.
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The sheriff seems to be part of a trend, as others are training smaller dogs for police uses.
"Sizewise, endurancewise they last longer," Dave Blosser, owner of the private Tri-State Canine Services in Warren, Ohio, says.
And there are other advantages to smaller dogs, says Bob Eden, whose Eden Consulting Group trains police dogs and handlers. "Smaller pups can get into smaller and tighter spaces in order to carry out their searches," Eden says.
On the other hand, dogs that are too small may not be able to get around certain obstacles — and there could be a credibility problem, Eden says.
As for a Chihuahua-rat terrier like Midge working as a K-9, well, the president of the North American Police Work Dog Association, H.D. Bennett, says he's never heard of a police dog so small it nearly fits in an outstretched palm.
That's not stopping McClelland, who bought Midge from a co-worker's relative and takes her everywhere — she even has a pair of goggles for rides on the sheriff's motorcycle.
"She is very calm. She is not yappy. She likes people a lot, really loves kids," he says.
On visits to classrooms, Midge gets passed among tiny hands. McClelland offers a lesson: "I tell the kids, 'Even when you're small, if you take a stand you can make a difference.' "
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