Robin's Nest from American Humane - K-9 Harrison and His Powerful Nose: Inside the World of ESD K-9s

Episode Date: May 4, 2026

In this episode of Robin’s Nest, hosted by Dr. Robin Ganzert, meet Harrison, a two-year-old Labrador Retriever and Caldwell County’s first Electronics Scent Detection (ESD) K-9.Trained to locate hidden devices like phones and flash drives, Harrison helps uncover critical evidence in cases involving the Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force. Alongside his handler, Lt. Doug Dupell, his work plays a key role in protecting vulnerable victims and supporting justice.A finalist for the Hero Dog Awards, Harrison also serves as a community ambassador, building trust and offering comfort beyond investigations.A powerful nose. A vital mission.

Get ready for a thrilling episode of Robbins Nest, where we introduce you to a remarkable young canine who represents the future of law enforcement. Meet Harrison, Caldwell County's first electronic scent detection dog. With the powerful nose, trying to locate hidden digital evidence, Harrison is helping investigators like his handler, Doug DePel, uncover the truth in some of the most sensitive and complex cases imaginable. Harrison is this year's American Humane Society's law enforcement dog finalist, and we can't wait for you to hear his story. Welcome to Robin's Nest. Many of us feel a deep bond with animals, from the pets we cherish at home to the endangered species in nature. Join us for lively informative conversations where together we will build a more humane world. I have Harrison in the House, our winning law enforcement hero, dog of the year. Harrison is an amazing, amazing dog. I can't wait for you to hear his story,

but I'm also here with his handler, Doug. And Doug, you know, I want to thank you for what you do. Serving your community, Caldwell County, North Carolina is safer because you are there. And I also noticed your bracelet here where it says pray for the police. And I, Doug, I want you to know my entire family. Praise for the police every single day. No, we appreciate that. We do. This was actually given to me by a good friend that retired out that's a captain. He's actually living in South Carolina right now. But yeah, we met up last Saturday and he gave that to me because it's just something he does and something he, like I said, being retired and what we do, we all kind of huddle together that way. It's very important. And what you've done, how long have you

served with Caldwell County Sheriff's Office? So for Caldwell County, I'm going on my 14th year. Actually, well, it was my 14th year yesterday. I will have the anniversary. Yes. So I'm on my 14th year with them with Caldwell. I've been an investigator 13 out of the 14 years. My goodness. My time on the road was short, so everything has been focused on investigations. That's incredible. And I want to hear about the type of investigations you do.

But first of all, would you be so kind to introduce this very handsome boy in the house, Harrison, and share a little bit about his story because he is gorgeous. And I love the fact he says, friendly please pet me which I'm sure everybody does because how good you not when you see this gorgeous creature but share a little bit about Harrison so Harrison is a three-year-old American lab he was trained actually right down here in Florida originally as a puppy by dogs ink so he learned PTSD and anxiety work and then from there the nice fellows there realized he had more potential and he went to Jordan detection up in Indianapolis where he

learn the electronics part and that's what makes Harrison special. Even though it says ESD dog, he's not an emotional support dog. He's an electronic storage device detection dog. So we find electronic storage or scent detection dog. Yes. Okay. Wow. Wow. So tell us what that means. Okay. So Harrison, his his main goal were 90, about 90% of our cases are all internet crimes against children because those people unfortunately like to keep souvenirs so pictures videos that type of stuff and they have to store it on these devices the other 10% have been homicide cases which is one of the reasons why we're here but with these devices they've gotten so small now and the way that you can hide them it's very hard for an investigation to find

being an investigator and having searching you try your hardest i mean you really do you search you search you search you think you have everything but then somebody taped a micro sd card up in the back of a bureau that unless you tour the whole house part you'd never find it but he can smell it so he points us to where those are at oh my god and and so what you're saying is that i think this i think i need to go back and watch some of my crime detection shows so basically what he is doing is finding evidence of crimes against precious children. Yes.

Who have been trafficked and abused. And those evidence is in electronic devices. Yes. Oh my God. So that's that that's our biggest our biggest project or goals is because even the the smallest micro SD card now can hold thousands upon thousands of images. So by potentially missing one. and I hate to say missing because we do our best, honestly. All officers do, but with him finding that, that's potentially a thousand lives that we could change

just by finding that one device. A thousand kids that you can say from additional abuse and trafficking and you can put the bad guys away. Bad guys away because they can't, especially when it's hidden like that, you can't say that you didn't know it was there. That's purposely hidden for a reason. Yes, yes.

So when it comes time, the court it makes it a whole lot easier to prosecute. Well, Doug, you've seen a lot. You've seen an awful lot of horrific things then in your career as an investigator. Yep. No, we have. The biggest things for us, obviously, is winning American Humane category this year. Yes. But we actually, Harrison and I joined as a team together in March of last year, so we're relatively new. Oh, I love that. But we, the past year, like I said, modest winning the American Humane, we had our first live save.

So one of our searches that we did, we found evidence and it led it back to a live child that was in the house. So we got that child out and was able to rescue that child. And then we found, of course, the case to bring us here, but then we found another go bag

for a known predator. And inside of it had cash in the passport and another storage device that he found. So it was a big year for us. Wow. Wow. Wow. Wow. That just gives me goosebumps.

It's just, I'm so grateful for you and what you do. And I'm really glad that Harrison's by your side allowing these fines to happen to get rid of the worst of the worst of people. The people that commit these kinds of crimes are just, they shouldn't, I mean, just don't even get me started when you heard a child. or when you heard an animal. Because people are atrocious. There's not enough words to express what you see.

And you and Harrison committed your lives to putting those bad guys away. Yeah, so that's actually my story as well. I was actually over a road department. And then they asked me to assist because I ran equipment. And I helped the police department there search for Zara Baker, which was a young girl in North Carolina. for her for two weeks and then I changed careers at age 43 and then this year by the grace of God I got approved by our rescue I got Harrison and we can keep giving back to

the kids because it's all about the kids it is all about the kids I believe that too Doug I believe that too and look how many you're gonna save and you've already saved we're hoping yes yes it's tough work so when you go home at night he goes home with you. Harrison goes everywhere I go. And he takes off that vest and is you play like a regular dog? If I took, well, if I took this vest off, we probably wouldn't have any of this equipment still in place. I hate to say it, but your hair and makeup will be destroyed. Oh, I think I'd get some kisses. I'd get some love. I know. He's, he's kind of not liking the vest right now because he's got to be on his good behavior. But yeah, he's, and that was the other thing, like when I explained it to my sheriff what he did because there's so few of them.

the fact that he can do PTSD and anxiety work is when we do find a child at one of these cases or you know if it's a domestic case because we work those two we can start therapy before we leave that's exactly right because everybody loves to bond the animals yes yes and he's his ears are like velvet he's the sweetest thing he'll kiss you to death um but it just breaks that that traumatic trauma for that little bit of time so it helps out so much for any he helps us calm down But for you too, I was going to say not only just for the victims, but also for you who is, you know, and your colleagues in the sheriff's department, for you to have him after a big find and seeing what you see and what you face every day, how hard that is, emotionally, spiritually. Yeah. And you got him.

We got him. How much does he weigh? Harrison's a little bit big right now. We're on, we're like on dad. We're on a slim fast diet here. No, no, no. Harrison's 93 pounds. 93 pounds of love here.

I was going to say there's a lot of loving going on with this great baby right here. There is, and that's the one thing with him is he will use his weight as part of his therapy. So just like your weighted blankets that everybody they recommend now, he actually puts his weight on you. Yes. If he knows you're anxious. He'll lay on you or he'll lay across your legs. And then the weight starts, but then. You have to kind of feel around a little bit.

He's kind of cool, but it's something odd about him. He starts radiating a lot of heat. Yes. Because it's another form of therapy is what I've learned. So not only do you have the weight of him, you have got the heat to help break that, that mental circle that's going on in your head when you're having trauma. But we make it a point every morning. We walk the entire office because you never know who's having a bad day, either at work or off work.

Yes. But he can sense it. So I let him do his thing and we visit everybody in the office every morning. It's beautiful. It's beautiful. What's his superpower, Doug? He's actually got many. But the way, to me, it's his compassion, his giving, and his urgency to know that what we're doing is so critical.

Because when we get to a crime scene, he could be like this, the whole rod up there. And then as soon as I get him there and I tell him, come on, buddy, let's go. It's time to work. He's pushing his way out of the door. I can't control him to keep him in the truck. And he's just ready to go. You wouldn't know it now, obviously. But he is.

He's just, he focuses in on his test so much. I say I actually have four harrisons because we've got, you know, the compassion Harrison with the PTSD and the anxiety work. We've got the electronic scent detection. The bond that he has created between the public and our sheriff's office is phenomenal. And then we teach internet safety for kids. So like in our kids camp and at the schools, I use him to break the ice for the kids to come up. And we start actually teaching him about being safe online and what sites to watch out for.

So although you ask me for what is his superpower, he has so many, it's kind of hard to pick. One. Well, he's just a, he's a super dog as wide, that's for sure. When you take him out on a case, is there a command that says that you want him to start sniffing and searching? Because like right now we have a lot of electronics as we're filming Robbins Nest. He doesn't seem at all interested. We're kind of a little boring over here right now.

But what is the commands that you would use? And maybe you have to spell them. I don't know. We'll say him it. Worst case, he'll jump up on my shoulders. But we'll go into the crime scene or pull up to the driveway. And actually, his trigger is to take the vest off. So I actually take the vest off.

When I have his vest on for Harrison, a lot of dogs put it on to know he's working. His vest idea is to do what he's doing right now, remaining calm. Yes, he's very calm, very chill for a three-year-old lab. Yes. Especially 90 pounds. but I take the vest off of him, and he knows something's up. Dad, he can sense my urgency by my voice.

And then I'll look at him. I basically look at him straight in your eyes, and I just tell him, come on, buddy, let's go to work. And he looks at me. He watches me to put the food pouch on my back because he's a food-driven lab, like all dogs, mostly. But I'll put the pouch on. I put a little towel in my pocket

because the only way he eats is by me feeding him by to my hand. Right. So, you know, salmon and dog slobbery, you got to wipe it off somewhere. So we put the towel on and then I just tell him, come on, buddy, let's go to work. And I tell him to seek. And when I tell him to seek, it's, it's hyper-focused, he's on. Wow, wow. And that's when he knows, he knows what to do.

Amazing, amazing, amazing. Yeah, he's just really, he's just really, relaxed now he knows that I you know we've only met a few times but I I can tell even as a dog's presence or an animal presence they know people yes so he knows he's safe here yes he does well this is the American humane sanctuary and it's robin's nest you don't get any safer for an animal that's for sure no I just want to just say this you know this this guy is so handsome so wonderful and I can't believe he's so calm with all the labs I've been around this is amazing to see this for sure. You know, I understand though, there's very few electronic scent detection dogs out there

in police departments. Is that true? Yes, they're very few. So when we started in March of last year, there was only five in the state of North Carolina. Only five in North Carolina. We're up to 12 right now, but Harris and I are on the furthest side. So we basically cover from the area of just above north of Charlotte there's a road 321 is the interstate so from 321 all the way to the Tennessee line we're the only dog on that side of the state

wow that's huge I used to live in Winston-Salem so I've driven all of those roads through there okay I know so you know it's a lot it's a lot we actually have traveled numerous times

to Winston-Salem to help out the Invictus project over there they've called and we went there thank you for that so he was five One of five when we first got him, one of twelve now. His number for us is 188 because when I got him in March of last year, he was 188 in the globe. Oh.

So I spoke to Chaz yesterday. Chaz is here from our rescue who's over the canine program. And he said currently we're up to a little over 200 globally. Wow. Wow. Wow. But this will be, to me, this is open so many doors because we get to speak about what they do and how important they are and the cases that they can do and trying to get more agencies to adopt an ESD program. I think an ESD program, when you look at the issues facing that evidence, right, and how we say that this is a huge issue. When you talk about child trafficking, this is a huge issue. And the front lines are now four legs and a wagging tail.

And this superpower of this dog is not only can he find the bad guy's evidence, he can also be there, particularly if they find a child, to be that love as a therapy dog. And of course, with all the men and women on the front lines fighting to find the bad guys, he's a therapy dog for them as well. I'm so proud to know you and I'm so proud that we're able to share the story of electronic scent detection dogs. and hopefully promote this area, this category. Because for law enforcement, I think when you think about dogs and you think about their power of scent and their power to save lives, you've got a great story here. What does it mean to be a hero dog?

It means the world to us, obviously, because this is, you know, you've been to Winston-Salem, you've been to North Carolina. We, you know, we're of a smaller area, a little bit more on the remote, So this is an opportunity once in a lifetime, honestly. The outpouring of love for him on his Facebook page and people just coming up to the street and the doors that have opened for being here now since we've been part of humane is just, it's phenomenal. There's no words to describe everything. Well, big shout out to everyone in Caldwell County Sheriff's Office. Thank you so much for letting Doug and Harrison share their story.

guess how many lives are going to change now by being a hero dog and allowing us to share this most important story of heroes on both ends of the leash truly. Congratulations and thank you so very much. Thank you so much Dr. Canzer and happy 15th. 15 years of hero dogs. 15 years of law enforcement dogs do. And this one's very special because he saves kiddos and we all want to do that. Thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you for tuning in to Robin's net. We want to hear what you think. Please make sure to review the podcast on your podcast platform.

Watch for upcoming episodes that will include new and exciting discussions. If you love animals, you'll love this season of Robins Nest.