30 PUNCHMAGAZINE.COM {punchline} and his family, which includes six other pet dogs. “It’s building that bond like you would with a regular dog,” Jason says of this foundational training. “They get to know who feeds them. They get to know who’s taking care of them… It’s them knowing that, ‘Hey, I can rely on you. You’re part of my pack now.’” He adds, “I don’t think a lot of people know that. They’re part of our family. They’re part of our lives. He is truly a partner.” So what does a typical day on the job currently look like for these two? “I don’t know if there’s anything ‘typical’ at work,” laughs Jason. But the day always starts with getting into uniform, as both handler and dog suit up in bulletproof vests. Jason and Elvis then head out to keep vigil over the east side of San Mateo. “We’re just on regular patrol like any other officer. The only difference for us is when there are alarm calls.” Whether it’s a burglary or an assault in progress, a stolen vehicle or officers in an altercation, Jason and Elvis are dispatched to the scene. “There are days where we are going from one end of the city to the other all day long,” Jason says, his upbeat attitude revealing no signs of fatigue. “On an ‘easier day,’ we’ll just patrol our city.” That includes keeping a presence at Bridgepointe Shopping Center: “That way, we deter any thefts from there.” What truly makes Elvis an asset to the police is his powerful nose. Here’s how Jason describes it: “When grandma’s cooking an apple pie, you smell the apple pie. That’s all you smell. When a dog walks into the room, they smell everything separately. They have 300 million olfactory receptors. They piece everything out: the sugar, everything that’s gone into the crust, the apples, the cinnamon. And they do that in a split second.”
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