Over his 20-plus year career in law enforcement, Cpl. Ron Kazakavage has spoken to numerous classes, usually accompanied by his faithful canine.

On Wednesday, Kazakavage led his last presentation. Stephen Ulicny’s criminal justice class at Tamaqua Area High School were the lucky students.Accompanied by his dog, Kino, Kazakavage explained the work of the K-9 unit, which is responsible for tracking drugs, people, and bombs.The visit came as the class wrapped up the law enforcement portion of the course.“You’re the capstone on law enforcement, you’re the closure,” Ulicny said.Kino, a 7-year-old German shepherd, isn’t Kazakavage’s first canine. But their bond is unbreakable.“When I am wearing this uniform, he won’t let me leave the house without him,” Kazakavage said.Kino is trained as a drug detection dog and also has tracking capabilities. Drug dogs are not trained for bombs, and vice versa, because they can’t tell their handler which is which.While he is officially property of the state police, every night, he goes home with Kazakavage.German shepherds are known for their strong sense of smell. It’s no coincidence that they have one of the longest snouts of any dog.“The longer a dog’s nose is, the more scent receptors are in there. That’s why these kinds of dogs with long snouts smell good. You get them pugs, we don’t use pugs. Two reasons, they don’t smell good, and they don’t look cool when you have them in the cop car,” Kazakavage said.The state police actually purchases their canines from an importer that brings them directly from Europe. The agency picks the dogs that they think will be best suited for the job.Over his career, Kazakavage and his dogs have taken hundreds of thousands, if not millions of dollars worth of drugs and illicit cash off the street.In his biggest bust, Kazakavage found 820 kilos of cocaine in a tractor-trailer.Students asked what the scariest time of his career was. He said it was a tossup between a murder response and a car crash that affected him the most.Kazakavage said that the job for today’s police officers is harder than ever, due to the narrow margin of error and high consequences if they make a mistake.“Times have changed. It’s tough out there. I would much rather be shot at and beat on than go to the cases where you’re getting sued,” he said.In April, when Kazakavage clocks out for the last time, he’ll be taking Kino home with him. He just completed adoption papers that means that the crime-fighting duo will be able to enjoy a lengthy retirement together.