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ATTLEBORO -- Watching Xena, a 60-pound German shepherd, running friskily in the snow at Capron Park recently, one wouldn't necessarily suspect that she is one-half of a crime-fighting team.

But when her human partner, Massachusetts State Trooper Kathleen Sampson, issues the command "work," the canine races to the door of Sampson's cruiser and it's all business. The same holds true when Sampson starts donning her uniform at home: The dog prepares for duty.

The duo is together 24-7, at work and in down time, creating a unique bond between the 7-year-old dog and the 16-year veteran trooper.

Sampson, who is assigned to the State Police K9 Unit East, which includes Bristol and Norfolk counties, has been working with K9s as part of her career for 13 years. Xena is her second dog. Her previous one, a German shepherd named Rico, died due to health issues. Troopers get to name their dogs, and Sampson said she likes "the two syllable, Italian-type names."

"It was always a dream of mine to work with canines," she said. A dog lover at heart, Sampson grew up with German shepherds. She's been working with Xena since 2002, and what makes their relationship different from other police-K9 teams is that she raised Xena from puppy-hood. Other troopers will typically work with an "import," a dog raised and trained overseas specifically for police work.

"I raised Xena as a pup into the program because it was an opportunity," Sampson said. "It was just personally a challenge and a task I was able to complete."

It's a relationship where there's a lot of reliance upon each other.

Training involves up to 16 weeks of "utility" instruction that includes obedience, tracking, building searches, aggression, article searches and other skills. Then it's time to hit the road and additional specialized training depending on whether the canine is classified as a narcotics or a cadaver dog, Sampson said. Xena and Sampson are in the narcotics division, which meant an additional 6 to 8 weeks of training to be able to conduct searches for marijuana, cocaine, heroin and methamphetamine.

The majority of calls the team gets involve search warrants for narcotics in motor vehicles, houses and other buildings. But they also get called to track and find suspects who may bail and flee from vehicles, break-ins where a suspect may still be in the building, missing elderly people who have walked away from their homes, or a child missing in the woods.

On one call, Sampson and Xena were sent to a scene where a person attempted to break into a building and was interrupted by the local police.

"He had fled on foot and hid in brush. Xena was able to alert the handler to the presence of the suspect," Sampson said. Faced with the prospect of tangling with Xena, "he gave up," she said.

German shepherds are the dominant breed in state police canine patrol work, but there is also a Rottweiler, blood hounds and a Belgian Malinois in the 44-dog patrol. While it varies, Sampson's unit can respond to 300 calls a month.

All of the state troopers in the canine unit take their dogs home with them.

"I would consider the (police) K9 a partnership; a relationship is with your pet," said Sampson. "The bond with the K9 is stronger than a house pet largely due to the time with my K9." That includes eight hours or more a day on patrol as well as after work and days off. Xena gets time for play at home, usually with Sampson's other dog, a golden retriever. But Xena has a lot of "responsibilities" as a police K9, and although it hasn't come to it yet, "she's tasked with the responsibility to protect me," Sampson said. "There might come a time when I have to call on her to protect my life."

That Xena takes this part of her duty seriously is quite clear. When Sampson went to shake hands with a reporter at Capron Park, Xena growled slightly, a strong reminder that she had the stranger in her sights.

"The satisfaction we get as a team working out in the field is indescribable," Sampson said. "To find a missing child, a missing adult is amazing.

"It's amazing to see the K9 work and what it can produce. There's such a high at the end of the find."

No dog in the canine unit has died in the line of duty in recent history, but Sampson said it would devastate her if that were to happen to Xena. Such is the strength of their bond.

"There's the dependency on each other: We're a team."

SUSAN LaHOUD can be reached at 508-236-0398 or at slahoud@thesunchronicle.com.