It’s been three years since Sedona police officer Jon Reed teamed up with his current partner, who simply goes by one name — Max.

The two paired up and are still one of the few K-9 units in all of Northern Arizona; those as highly trained as Reed and Max are especially rare. While the pair are assigned to Sedona, they often assist nearby agen­cies on a variety of calls, but primarily ones that are drug-related.

Max is a 5-year-old Belgian Malinois, a breed which over the past decade has become increasingly popular with law enforce­ment agencies because they are faster than most breeds, including German shepherds, and Malinois are lighter and have fewer health issues than larger dogs.

Max is unique when it comes to K-9s in the state. He’s what’s referred to as a three-odor K-9, meaning that he is trained to detect methamphetamine, heroin and cocaine. Most that are in service now are also trained to sniff out mari­juana. With increasing legalization of medical marijuana over the past several years — and now that recreational use is legal in Arizona — many of the existing K-9s in the state are having to retire early because they’re certified for marijuana and may erroneously signal that legal drug during a search for illegal drugs.

“If people have medical marijuana, and now with Prop 207 [which legal­ized its use in Arizona], he’s one of the only working dogs right now,” Reed said. “Every time someone may have meth or heroin in the car and they have a weed card, the marijuana-trained dogs can’t sniff that vehicle for probable cause.”

The Arizona Department of Health Services issues medical marijuana cards to patients proving they can legally possess the drug.

“So, if an agency believes they have one of those other drugs and the person has a weed card, they have to call me out because Max is one of the few dogs that’s trained on the harder drugs,” Reed said.

Reed said over the next six months there will be a lot of training of new dogs and getting them certified in those three harder drugs now that marijuana use is legal.

“Some agencies are trying to keep their dogs, but from a legal stand­point it’s difficult,” Reed said. “Unless you’re only doing highway interdic­tion stuff, where people are smuggling large amount of marijuana from Arizona to other states, then you can still use the marijuana dogs. Anything, especially in cities, you pretty much have to have a three-odor dog.

“The main reason we chose for him to be trained in heroin, cocaine and meth was because we knew this was inevitable [legalization of mari­juana], just with the way things were going. Even just the medical part of it was affecting the K-9s. It was a benefit for us to leave that [marijuana] out of his training.”

Reed and Max often team up with neigh­boring agencies including Yavapai County Sheriff’s Office, the Arizona Department of Public Safety and police depart­ments in the Verde Valley.

Max has had a hand in — or paw as the case may be — in several of the larger drug busts along Interstate 17. This included hundreds of pounds of methamphet­amine and thousands of fentanyl pills.

Reed said that while there are drugs in Sedona, it’s often like “finding a needle in a haystack” when seeking those Max is trained for. They’re not as prevalent as they are in neighboring communi­ties, he said, which is why their assistance is often requested.

But if that’s the case, why the need for a K-9 unit in Sedona?

“One, because a lot of the people who use drugs in Cottonwood, Camp Verde, Cornville and Rimrock, they commute here to work,” he said. “It’s there, but it’s Sedona. so it’s harder to find.”

Another reason as to why Sedona has a K-9, he said, is a domino effect. If Max is assisting on a drug bust in a neigh­boring community or in the county, many of those individuals are coming to Sedona to commit petty crimes in order to support their habit.

“If we can help get 50,000 fentanyl pills off the streets, that’s a lot of lives saved,” Reed said. “I can’t guarantee any of those pills would have found their way to Sedona, but they could. I understand there are a lot of people who want to see our K-9 strictly used in Sedona, but for me, I want to see him make as big of an impact as possible in our community and region.”

Lt. Stephanie Foley, who served as the K-9 officer with her partner, Dalan, prior to Reed, said she knows first-hand about all the extra work that goes into the position.

“K-9 Officer Reed and K-9 Max are a well-trained and highly motivated team,” she said. “Reed is always available for call-outs to assist our depart­ment and other agencies in need. Max excels in both narcotic detection and patrol work. Officer Reed has elevated the K-9 program for Sedona Police Departments with his hard work, training and dedication.”

Like all other K-9s, Max lives with his trainer. And even though he’s a dog, it doesn’t mean the job doesn’t take its toll as it would any other officer.

“He’s awesome but we’ve had to learn some of his quirks and trig­gers,” Reed said. “Like officers, first responders or military people, with everything we’ve put him though, that can cause anxiety and PTSD in a dog the same way it does people.

“He’s still great at work when it comes to loud noises and gunfire, but he does not like thunder­storms. He paces around and gets anxious,” Reed said.

“Overall he’s made a big impact on our community through drug apprehensions and has been a great deterrent for use of force,” he said. “Through some of our SWAT deployments, he’s honestly saved officers’ lives by them not having to go in and deal with an armed individual. That, in itself, means everything to me.”