Good evening,
It’s a humid and cloudy evening, with a low temperature for tonight of about sixty-four in the offing.
I’ve written before about a police dog tiny in Edgerton, Wisconsin that twice bit people, and was returned to be resold rather than continue serving that Wisconsin community. The dog, named Ash, has been sold for $3,000 to a Albuquerque, New Mexico facility. See, Edgerton sells K-9 Dog.
There’s an unintentionally funny comment that an intermediary made about training the dog still needs:
In the next few months, K-9 Services plans to put Ash through a training program for criminal apprehension and drug detection, Wierenga said. He said Ash is ready for narcotics work, but needs more work in the area of bite training. “As far as the understanding to go in and do full mouth bites and grips during apprehension, I had recognized (Ash) didn’t have a lot of training in that area,” Wierenga said.”
He’s referring, of course, to deficiencies in how the dog can properly bite and grip; it’s obviously more than capable of improperly biting.
Police dogs require lots of specialized care and discipline. They’re not pets, but service animals to assist police officers in defending officers and protecting citizens. To see how foolish it was for tiny Edgerton to buy a police dog, one need only read about how much care they require. In a recent story in the Janesville Gazette, one learns that for the much larger Rock County Sheriff’s Office, a new dog required
When the decision as made to bring back K-9s, the sheriff’s office and union agreed on a compensation package, Spoden said. The contract addresses the handler’s responsibilities and pay outside of normal duty.
To create the K-9 program, Capt. Jude Maurer said the sheriff’s office spent:
— $10,000 to buy the dog using federal grant money.
— $22,600 to buy a dedicated squad car using fees paid by the state for sheriff’s office patrol of UW-Rock County.
— $11,000 to outfit the squad car using federal grant money.
— $484 for training equipment using federal grant money.
— $541 for dog supplies using donations.
— $1,610 for Nolan’s meals and lodging during four weeks of training in Campbellsport using a state training grant.
The addition of Dex boosts to five the number of police dogs on duty at law enforcement agencies in Rock County. Janesville has two German shepherds, and Beloit has two Belgian Malinois. Edgerton had a German shepherd for a few days until it bit a police department employee May 10 and was deactivated.
The sheriff’s office selected Nolan to be Dex’s handler after the sheriff’s office found a need for a K-9 and had difficulties borrowing dogs from other agencies, Maurer said.
See, New K-9 Officer Reporting for Duty.
That’s just not a lot of money; it’s a sign of how much work responsible officers have to do to keep a dog properly cared for and conditioned. These are not show dogs to be paraded around an office, or ornaments for a leader’s pride.
For a show about a famous German Shepherd, but not a real service dog, there’s always The Adventures of Rin Tin Tin. The original canine star has been portrayed by successor dogs for almost a hundred years. See, The Rin TIn TIn Website. (“Since 1918, eleven generations of RIN TIN TIN.”)
Here’s a clip from a television show. Enjoy.