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The new officer of the Ligonier Township Police Department sat on the floor, mouth wide open, tongue hanging out and eyes looking up to his partner.

Curious visitors stopped into the police department's office last week, wanting a peek at the first police dog in the Ligonier Valley owned by a municipal department. Ando, an 18-month-old German shepherd, started his first work day, Dec. 13, with his handler, Officer Eric Eslary.

"He's a little wound up right now," Eslary said as leashed Ando circled him, shedding hairs on the officer's black uniform pants.

The dog hadn't yet started his primary work — sniffing for drugs and locating people — but he's been busy serving as a community relations tool, making appearances at clubs and schools.

Funds for the dog's purchase largely came from donations, showing the community's support, said police Chief Ron Dorazio. The department received more than $11,000 from the Ligonier Valley Endowment, the local American Legion and VFW posts, and the Westmoreland County District Attorney's Office.

The idea to bring a dog into the township sprang about two years ago, Dorazio said. Real estate agent and township resident John McCaffrey approached Dorazio, saying something more had to be down about the area's high drug activity. Dorazio took a plan to the township supervisors, who agreed with the idea. Supervisor Keith Whipkey said the three officials are "really happy to have him."

The dog is covered under township's insurance policy, and because of the donations, has not been any cost to taxpayers, Whipkey said.

Ando was born in Germany and brought to central Pennsylvania by Castle K-9 Inc. of Mechanicsburg. Eslary spent three weeks of training in Mechanicsburg, learning the commands and — among other things — bonding with the dog.

Eslary continues to speak to the dog using German commands. Training began at just 10-20 weeks old while still in Europe. It's easier to teach the handler a few key German words than it is to retrain the dog in a second language. So for a little while, Eslary said, he carried with him an English-German cheat sheet of the dog's commands.

Ando seemed eager to run outside and play as he licked the fingers of visitors. "Pfui!" Eslary commanded, a German word for "No!"

"When I first got him, I wondered if he could actually bite someone because he was so playful and social ," Eslary said. "There's a lot of puppy in him."

But with just a single word from his handler, the dog will turn serious. As Dorazio describes it, the dog is another working tool for the department, which covers about 100 square miles of land.

Dorazio hopes the dog deters people from having drugs or students from bringing them to school, he said. He wants to take Ando on a walkthrough of the high school's hallways, allowing the dog's nose to sniff out drugs in the lockers.

Dorazio also said the dog's presence may stop people from becoming confrontational with officers. In the last few months, officers were assaulted twice during traffic stops, he said.

As the only local dog in eastern Westmoreland County, Ando is available to any department that needs the help, Dorazio said. The departments "just have to call and ask," he said.

In adjoining Ligonier Borough, the police chief had in the past called upon the departments in North Huntingdon and Penn townships for drug searches. But there were other times when a dog would have aided investigations, said Chief Randy Cox, but it would have taken too much time to get an animal into Ligonier.

Like most police dogs, Ando lives with Eslary in his township home — along with Eslary's wife, two children and four other dogs.

"I've always been an animal lover," he said with a smile.

During his 235 hours of initial training, Eslary was told he might have to get rid of a few of the animals when Ando moved in.

"But surprisingly, they're all getting along well," Eslary said. "He's trained to get along with other dogs."

In drug raids or large-searches searches, for example, Ando likely will be on the job with several other police dogs. Eslary and Ando will continue their training, four hours a week, with other police dogs from the region.

"The more time he's with you, the more bonding," Eslary said. "He's trained to do anything for you. He could simply save my life or the lives of the other officers."

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