By REBECCA COOK
Staff Writer

When a shoplifting suspect disappeared into the woods behind Belk department store last month, police Officer Vinny Bazain knew just what to do.

First he whimpered. Then he woofed. Then, like an eager bloodhound sniffing the air: ``Aroooooo! Ar, ar, aroooo!''

The shaking suspect jumped out of a bush, hands up, and surrendered to the police ``dog.''
He looked around and saw Bazain, the barking cop.

``He just wanted to fall flat on his face,'' Bazain chuckled.

Tonight, Bazain gets a chance to howl his way into America's heart. He'll appear on ``The Tonight Show with Jay Leno,'' sharing the stage with guests Ellen Degeneres and Dennis Rodman.

His Lancaster barking bust made him famous, but Bazain, 37, is no pup when it comes to collaring bad guys. He's done the bloodhound impression more times than he can count, and he says it works about 90 percent of the time.

He first imitated a dog as a rookie cop in 1988, when he and his partner in South Florida chased a domestic-assault suspect into an abandoned building. His partner, a veteran officer, said, ``Vinny, get your dog!''

Bazain, inspired by previous experience with police dogs, started whimpering. His partner fed him an imaginary biscuit.

``Bark like a dog,'' he whispered. Bazain let loose with a series of fierce barks and hair-raising howls.

The suspect surrendered, and the cop who barks like a dog was born.

No one paid much mind to his hound-dog act until he came five months ago to Lancaster, population 10,000, and nabbed the shoplifting suspect. Now he's a town hero: People bark at him everywhere he goes, and fellow officers tease him with doggie biscuits in his station mailbox.

Bazain's special bond with the canine world may have started when he ate dog food as a kid to see how it tasted. ``Pretty good,'' he recalls. And he's always been amazed at how police dogs can transform hardened criminals into scared little kittens.

He also dotes on Wandie, a part-terrier, part-pit bull that wandered into his life bleeding and broken on the Miami streets. Every night, Bazain and Wandie howl together and Bazain feeds him cocktail wieners.

Does his mastery of dog language mean he can translate Wandie's howls into English?

``Of course,'' Bazain says. ``My dog would say I'm crazy . . . and he would tell me he loves me.''

Catch Bazain on NBC's ``Tonight Show'' at 11:30 p.m. And if Bazain happens to catch you on the wrong side of the law, don't worry: His bark is worse than his bite.