The Paulding County Sheriff’s Office recently got a new addition to its lineup! The new force in training is Veteran, the Canine unit added to the roster at the Sheriff’s Office.
Veteran is a German Shepherd from Czechoslovakia that is about 10 months old and is now on his 3rd week of training. Veteran is a black haired full bred about 75 lbs but still growing, and should top out at about 90 lbs. Veteran travelled from Czechoslovakia as an untrained, or not imprinted, to be trained from scratch by the handler in the US.
Veteran is made possible by funds donated by the Paulding, Antwerp, and Grover Hill VFW’s.
Nick Cunnhingham, Veteran’s handler, is 25 years old and lives in Payne with his wife. He is a 2012 graduate from Crestview and he’s been with the Paulding County Sheriff’s Office for five years. Cunningham said he wanted to be the next handler after he had talked to Deputies Caleb Miller and Gary Deatrick who had the other county’s canines.
So far, Veteran and Cunningham have had about 3 weeks out of the 14 weeks of training and so far it’s going very well. Every weekday, they both traveled up to the Allen County Sheriff’s Dog Kennel in Fort Wayne for the training sessions.
Sheriff Jason Landers is very thankful for the support of the community and the canine by the VFW’s. He also made note that, “All of the food for our working K9’s is donated by MARS, Inc. from Leipsic, Ohio in Putnam County.”
Veteran’s training includes using tennis balls with different drugs and chemicals. Veteran is also doing on-the-job training. He has learned all kinds of commands to make him do exactly as told. He has learned that different collars mean different types of service. His harness means that he is tracking. A leather collar is for obedience training, and a Nylon collar is for drug searches.
A dog like Veteran should be able to serve 9-10 years in his capacity before being retired.
Nick stated, “I’m very thankful for a good dog like Veteran!” The canine has proved to be non-aggressive, nor easily frightened even in startling situations such as gunshots.
Watch for Veteran as he becomes a full-time canine unit with the Sheriff’s office!
