By Allen Hamrick
The Clay Sheriff’s Department has recently added a new and highly trained weapon to their team… a German shepherd named Parko.
Parko, along with his handler, Tyler Traub, make up the new and permanent K-9 unit that has already made an impact on the drug problem in Clay County. Acquiring Parko was not an easy task – several grants had to be written and donations made by local entities to procure him from Working Dogs International. Parko has been in training since he was weaned at an early age; many months of learning and training were necessary for Parko’s preparation. He is highly skilled in finding narcotics, as well as in apprehension and tracking, and thus far, he is extremely effective at his job.
Not just anybody can take these K-9 officers on as a partner to work with; the officer they will be teamed with also has to go through rigorous training with the dog to make the two a unit. Parko’s skills are as good as they can get, and at 14 months, he is still growing. At full size, Parko will be a dog that is fearless, intimidating and loyal. Make no mistake; at 14 months of age, he is as good as they come when he is on duty. Dogs, especially German Shepherds, have been used for many, many years, even as early as the dark ages. However, the modern police dog was first introduced in the 1800’s when they used bloodhounds to locate Jack the Ripper.
Bloodhounds were once used extensively for police work because they had noses like vacuum cleaners. They were mainly used as trackers, but by 1899, officers started using different breeds and have been training them on different tasks from that time since. As the world changes, so does the training and duties of police dogs. The modern K-9 is treated with the same respect as the human officer. These K-9 officers are trained from puppies to be an integral part of the police force. German shepherds are the dog of choice for many of the K-9 units and have been serving the public and their safety for years. They are extremely fast, very smart and can be trained easily. It doesn’t matter if a suspect is armed or not, a German shepherd can bring them down quick. Parko’s primary mission at Clay will be a narcotics officer, but he is well versed in apprehension. The Clay County Sheriff’s Department exists to keep the people of Clay County safe and each officer in the department has been highly trained to do their job effectively. With the addition of Parko and his unique set of skills, the Sheriff’s Department is now better equipped for sniffing out narcotics, apprehending reluctant suspects and keeping the citizens of Clay County safe.