When students at Walton, Pope, Lassiter, and Wheeler walk through the doors Monday, Aug. 3, a detection dog will briefly trail them, sniffing for the chemical signature of a concealed firearm.

That's the new normal across all 16 Cobb County traditional high schools. The district is doubling its Vapor Wake K-9 fleet from eight dogs to 16, stationing one dog and one handler at every campus for the 2026-27 school year, which begins Monday, Aug. 3.

Unlike traditional police dogs trained to search lockers or bags in a fixed spot, Vapor Wake K-9s follow the scent trail a person leaves behind. The dogs detect smokeless powders and other residues associated with firearms and explosives on a moving person in a crowd, according to the Marietta Daily Journal.

"There's a trail left behind [everyone], so the dog's gonna smell all the lotions and perfumes and all of that, but they're trained to differentiate one thing, and that's the firearm odor that's left behind on someone that might be concealing a firearm on them," Blake Zimmerman, a Cobb Schools police officer and K-9 handler, told the MDJ.

If a dog alerts, the handler pulls the individual aside for a search. Officers and their K-9s will rotate among entrances and drop-off points daily to avoid predictability. After the first bell, the dogs continue patrolling hallways and classrooms.

What it cost

The school board approved $2 million in November 2025 for Superintendent Chris Ragsdale to purchase eight additional Vapor Wake dogs from Alabama-based Global K9 Protection Group. Ragsdale first launched the program in February 2025 with two dogs at $60,000 each; the board added $540,000 for six more in April 2025, bringing the initial fleet to eight by July 2025.

First-year results

During the 2025-26 school year, the program's eight dogs screened more than 69,000 people, 4,000 vehicles, and 19,400 bags across the district, according to district figures reported by the MDJ. The K-9 team logged more than 2,500 hours of specialized training. In the 90 days before the November 2025 board vote, the team had been deployed roughly 180 times during school hours and events, according to WSB-TV.

What families should expect

Each of the four East Cobb high schools now has a dedicated K-9 and handler, though all 16 dogs remain available districtwide if needed elsewhere. Three additional K-9s trained to detect narcotics also serve the district, Zimmerman said.

As we reported July 28, the program covers only the district's traditional high schools; the non-traditional Cobb Horizon High School is excluded.

The first day of school is Monday, Aug. 3.