With the war on drugs continuing across the country, narcotics dogs are proving to be a vital instrument in solving drug-related crimes. K9 units from across the country are in Fayetteville, Arkansas for narcotics training. 

These narcotics and patrol dogs train for a whole week, working on sniffing out everything from meth to marijuana.
 
The National Narcotic Detector Dog Association takes place every year in a different state.  This year they are training around 200 dogs in Fayetteville, Arkansas.

Vice President of NNDDA Keith Wilkes said, "These dogs, especially the narcotic dogs every day there's no doubt there's a big war on drugs and this is a vital tool that we must use to locate these drugs."

The National Narcotic Detector Dog Association conference the week of April 16th through the 20th trains dogs from all over to sniff out narcotics, helping police apprehend suspects.

Wilkes said, "We're able to go in and get the drugs out, in which case, obviously saves kids. Can't tell you how many kids and so forth from the narcotics before they hit the street."

The dogs may be an essential role to finding drugs and taking them off the streets, but handlers say it's all a fun game for the dog.

"Various ways of awarding, usually it's a toy of some type. They know that when they find those odors, find those narcotics, they get that reward, so it becomes a game for them." said Wilkes.

Handlers are trained right along with their dogs.

K9 Officer Mike King with Carrollton, Texas Police Department said, "We learn about how they react when they're in odor, but they have areas where they're disguising the odor like we're going to see on the streets, things like that and it's good to introduce our dogs to stuff like that."

Drug dogs are more than co-workers to their handlers.

Wilkes said, "They're out there, a lot of them will no doubt protect you as well. You ride with them in a car everyday, you work with them everyday, they become part of your family."

 The competition Friday is being held at the Whitaker Animal Science Center on the U of A campus and is open for the public to watch.  anyone can show up to see around 2-hundred drug dogs compete.   Conference awards for the top placers are handed out tonight.

(from Tara Campbell, KFSM)