Roundup's K-9 Dog Gets a Vest

 

Lura Pitman

A company called Project Paws Alive has generously given the Roundup Sheriffs Office a protective vest for Rico, our police dog. Project Paws Alive provides vital protective equipment for working military and police dogs. The vest is a lightweight around three pounds, it is bullet and stab resistant, custom made for each dog, and built to be worn full time. This costly vest ($3000-$4000) has been made possible through fund-raisers and donations made to Project Paws Alive. There are many working dogs that still need these vests, according to their website, many Law Enforcement K-9 Units do not have a budget to have these life-saving vests as most Law Enforcement agencies are prohibited from using funds on equipment that is not for human use.

Lura Pitman

Our K-9 handler, Deputy Manning, introduced me to Rico, a Belgium Malinois. Rico can track and locate subjects, and do article searches. The officer explained that an average human has about 500 olfactory cells (where we smell and taste), while any of these kinds of dogs have an average of around 250 million olfactory cells. He further explains that dogs smell differently than humans, as an example, if we smell pizza or popcorn in a room, we smell the whole thing put together while the dog smells every ingredient. When a dog is trained on narcotics, they sandwich a bunch of drugs into a ball and the dog learns on that, then they separate each drug to refine his tracing abilities. Rico is trained for cocaine, methamphetamine, heroine, marijuana, and human smell. Since Rico is a working police dog, you should not attempt to pet him without permission from his handler.

The Roundup Sheriff's Office would like to thank Project Paws Alive for the vest for Rico, and thank any who may have made a donation to this foundation to make these vests possible for our law enforcement dogs around the nation. If you would like to find out more about Project Paws Alive, you can find their website at http://www.projectpawsalive.org.

 

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