Law enforcement is a tough profession: long hours, high risk, modest pay. Burnout can be a problem.

But not for the group of high achievers who lined up Sunday to receive awards for excellence in the line of duty.

Seven outstanding German shepherds, from "K-9" corps across the metropolitan area, got recognition from the German Shepherd Dog Club of St. Louis Inc. for valiant deeds ranging from feats of tracking to defense of a handler to helping capture armed suspects to drug detection.

The awards ceremony for the few, the proud and the hairy was held at the old Kirkwood swimming pool complex and honored the top performers among 86 K-9 dogs used in Illinois and Missouri.

Cody, a 4-year-old female shepherd handled by Peg Shannon, an officer with the Creve Coeur Fire Protection District and a canine search specialist, was honored for finding a 21-month-old boy lost outside Wright City a year ago. After both a helicopter search and a human dragnet had failed, Cody located the child in 20 minutes.

She finds a missing person by air scent, as opposed to sniffing a piece of clothing. She picks up the adrenaline and body odor an agitated person dumps in the air, ignoring the enticement of deer or small animal odors.

She can also find cadavers, even those buried under several feet of covering.

"To train her to detect buried cadavers, we'll take the soil from a homicide scene, the soil from directly under a corpse, and we'll train her on that," Shannon said. "She loves her work; it's a game of seek and find to her."

The supreme symbol of man's continuing reliance on the dog is probably the police dog, whose nose has cracked cases Agatha Christie couldn't. Handlers at the awards ceremony estimated that 80 percent of the police dogs in the metropolitan area are German shepherds. The breed, which is celebrating its 100th anniversary this year, has continuing popularity with police officers, who can choose what breed they prefer to work and live with.

"The Dobermans were big for a while, but the image consultants told us they had to go because they really chewed on a suspect," said Edward Meyer of the St. Louis Police Department. "Dobermans don't bite and hold; they bite and slash. They make messy wounds. Bad for police image."

Labradors and retrievers have proven excellent at tracking and drug detection, "but they're a little weak on the attack work," he said.

Meanwhile, the German shepherds do it all. Rick, handled by Officer Michael Perkins of the St. Louis Police Department, tracked a suspect through a rain storm, across a creek, around a subdivision and into a cemetery, where the man was caught.

Bacchaus, handled by Carol Seithel, also of the St. Louis Police Department, stopped an armed, fleeing subject who tried to fight with the dog. A mistake. Bacchaus is bigger than his handler. When people applauded his valor, he lunged at his leash, thinking it was time for crowd-control duty.

Shadow, the only canine member of the Arnold Police Department, handled by Officer Marc McEneny, won top awards for substance detection, which he was called to do no fewer than 61 times last year.

"It's the meth capital of the world down there," said his handler. "They keep us busy. I don't care because it's mostly overtime. More money for me."

What does Shadow get?

"He gets all the Pro Plan (dog chow) he can eat. That's all he likes: Pro Plan."

Hold the doughnuts.