I sincerely did not intend my comment to be hostile or belittling. It was brought up that the dog could be scary. And I sincerely doubt that the narc dog is gonna be the worst part of the experience for the child, at that instance, nor in its life.
I live in a town with two max prisons. I am vaguely familiar with this situation...being friends with guards, teachers and administration as well as meeting a fair number of visiting familys at local restaurants or getting stopped for directions.

The dog needs to do it's job and I fully agree that the handler could have been more polite and forthcoming with you. However they are doing a high stress job and you are the babysitter.....I am really thinking this was their feelings. Maybe they suck at it, but maybe too they know things that you don't about the people and situation.
If I were you I would talk to the kennel people and the people you were to report to and report. It may clarify a great deal.
Personally I know our local sheriffs drug dog well and he is so high drive that his signal is a split second sit if the situation is one of stress or activity. In a calm school hallway he may plunk down and stay but otherwise he is too eager to get on with the work.

Will,

This isn't really a response to your post. It is more by way of a request...

I'd like to formally apply for certification at the 'novice' level in all things dog. Every day I discover I know a little less than I thought I knew.

 Quote: mike arnold

I'd like to formally apply for certification at the 'novice' level in all things dog. Every day I discover I know a little less than I thought I knew.

Reminds me of a saying in so-called "higher educcation:" "The more education a person receives, the more he discovers he does not know."

 Quote: aaron myracle

I think its important to note that the Officer you spoke to was obviously hostile, and that makes it difficult to take any useful information away from the exchange.

Coming from the position you are, as a civilian member of a watchdog group, its unlikely you'd receive a cooperative response from many individual Officers.

It'd probably be far more productive to contact the kennel master and ask to see how the dogs are trained, etc; rather than simply chatting with an Officer in the course of his duties who for a variety of reasons may not be all that keen on chatting with you.

That's a good point. In fact, I think a good working policy might be for the K9 department to have a designated point person for "questions about training" from civilians. That way, the information going out is consistent and controlled. The street officer's response could simply be "good question, and for the answer I've been instructed to direct you to xxx-xxxx." End of conversation.

Having been raised with Narcotic and Explosive detection dogs in the US and abroad,
There are many legal issues when using detection dogs for surveillance on civilians, a dog used for the purpose you mentioned should display a passive alert as not to be so intrusive, these laws vary by country. It is my feeling that this officer did not feel the need to explain his dogs training, there are many areas of confidentiality pertaining to this subject.

@Tammy I totally understand the reason for confidentiality. And that is why I originally asked for private messages. I am trusting that no one who is in a position to know is revealing anything that might compromise the training of these dogs. As I have had three decades of professional contact with these kinds of working dogs, and have found handlers and trainers very proud of their accomplishments and the work they have done to keep their dog in the best possible frame of mind to continue the work, it just surprised me in this instance to find something that did not fit with what I already knew, and why I posted to get some experienced people to give me their perspectives. For those who have expressed a personal, rather than professional opinion, I appreciate your willingness to be helpful but I am not interested in personal opinions about offenders, LEOs, prisons, or my role there. They do not help me sort out this issue. I am grateful for point on the use of passive alerts in certain situations. I would have expected this to be part of the training and part of the protocol. Using a dog to search a suspect cell, definitely makes active alert the proper choice to make an impression. Using that kind of alert on a two or three year old, even if you thought the parent was smuggling something in on them, is not appropriate, if the passive alert will do the job.

 Quote: Mary V. Shaw

Using that kind of alert on a two or three year old, even if you thought the parent was smuggling something in on them, is not appropriate, if the passive alert will do the job.

Mary, while you state that you're not interested in opinions that aren't exactly to the question, they do cover background - and comments or questions about your role there *are*valid to this post.

I'd like to note that none of the LEOs that are on this forum have commented on this question ( don't count me here in an LEO role, I only made a Mod Notice ), and that alone speaks volumes.

Will, respectfully, I did not make that comment to be agressive or dismissive. In response to your mod post that not everyone on the forum was a professional, I was trying to ask for help that was specific to this situation, from the professionals who do this. We all have opinions, and are entitled to them. When I originally posted, I thought this group was predominantly professionals. Through further reading and your mod notice, I now realize that the mixture is much more broad. I greatly appreciate anything offered that is helpful. We all operate through life and work from our own perspective and what we think we do, and what someone else sees, can be very different.

Mary, I wasn't making the comments to be negetive, I just added that Mod Note to fill you in as a new poster about the realities of this ( or any ) forum - which from your last comment you have understood.

Good luck!