Sheriff’s Office quadruples its K9 unit

By Rosa Duarte

Published: July 7, 2008

A local Sheriff’s office is taking a bigger bite out of crime as it adds to its force.
The Montgomery County Sheriff’s office has three new members Kail, Hickson and Bady, quadrupling the K9 unit to four dogs.
Cpl. Travis Harvey and K9 supervisor says the sheriff allotted extra money in the budget to replace 10 year old Axar but was able to find three dogs instead “I did a little work with some help with Franklin County Deputy Master trainer John Hoover, he was able to help us out considerably and we worked it around where we got three dogs out of it.”
Harvey says since he helps teach at the K9 School Hoover cut the cost for the three handlers and got a deal on some of the dogs from a kennel in West Virginia, “Part of the deal is we got a dog that’s kind of interesting. It’s a Malawa-Bouvia cross, he’s not a dog that people are actually looking to buy, he was a cheaper dog because of what he is. But in fact he’s a really good dog so it worked out really well.”
The dogs are still rookies compared to Axar but soon will be just as skilled in narcotics, tracking and patrol “we’ve got one dog for every shift, so anytime a shift’s working we got a dog out working” adds Harvey.