For Furr, a Kannapolis police officer, playing dog decoy is part of the job description.

“It still makes you a little nervous. Especially when you know they’re going to bite you, and they’re not going to let go,” said Furr, bundled Monday in a gray, two-piece outfit as thick as a space suit — the only thing between his calf and a sharp set of teeth. “To the dogs, this is just playing.”

Kannapolis police enlisted their first two trained dogs in June.

Already, “Doerak” and “Racket” have sniffed for marijuana, cocaine and heroin in vehicles, buildings and forests. They’ve uncovered evidence from crime scenes where human feet might have trampled it. And they’ve helped track criminal suspects and missing persons.

But when the day is over and these dogs return home with their handlers, officers J. Tommy Ratliff and Phil K. Bullard, they don’t get a nap on the couch or scraps from the dinner table.

At home, Bullard’s dog usually stays in a $1,700 insulated kennel set outside in the woods. Bullard’s 10-year-old daughter and 18-year-old son know that Racket is a special kind of pet.

“I couldn’t ask for a better pet with children.” Bullard said. “But they know that this is not an ordinary dog that they can play with. You must have control over these dogs at all times.”

Monday, the two officers showed off the dogs to a group of 20 ROTC students on the baseball field at A.L. Brown High School and to children at Forest Park Elementary School.

Sgt. Linda A. Canzona, coordinator of the Kannapolis Police Department’s K-9 program, used to work with dogs for the Salisbury Police Department. She said handlers can’t get too attached to them — even though they’re together every day.

“We advocate the dog as a tool, a piece of equipment,” Canzona said. “We’re real careful not to turn these dogs into pets. If they sit around petting these dogs all of the time, why are they going to want to work?”

The Kannapolis Police Department bought its two dogs with a federal grant from the U.S. Department of Justice. Between April and June, Ratliff and Bullard completed more than six weeks of intensive training and certification at Southern Police Canine Inc. in Spring Hope.

The dogs now know as many as 18 commands, all spoken in Dutch, their native “language.” Doerak is a Belgian Malinois; Racket is a mix between a Malinois and Belgian shepherd.

Right now, the dogs are practicing snooping for a drug called methamphetamine, a highly addictive stimulant. They practice with a scented toy.

These dogs ride in cars that make James Bond seem primitive.

The patrol cars have kennels in the back seats with spill-proof water bowls. If a car gets too hot with the dog inside, the car’s horn blares, its rear windows drop and a fan turns on. If attacked, Ratliff and Bullard carry a remote that opens their patrol cars’ rear doors, releasing the dog.

Kannapolis resident and animal lover Donna Coffey and two friends have agreed to donate bulletproof vests for the Kannapolis Police Department’s two dogs and four others at the Concord Police Department.

“I love animals and had read about dogs who are killed in the line of duty,” said Coffey, who ordered the vests from Guardian Technologies of Dulles, Va., for $411 apiece. “A lot of officers send them into buildings, and they put their lives on the line.”

Canzona said Ratliff and Bullard not only take their work home with them, but about everywhere else, too.