POUGHKEEPSIE – Six canines have completed the Dutchess County Sheriff’s Office K9 Academy and are deployed to assist law enforcement in Dutchess and Putnam counties. Bruiser, a one-year-old Bloodhound, was certified in tracking in October and with his handler, Lieutenant Petrus, has already assisted in locating a missing person.
The five that finished last week are trained in obedience, agility, tracking, building search, area search, article search, handler protection, and criminal apprehension. According to Dutchess County Sheriff’s Office Deputy
Bill McKay, the academy instructor, said the K-9s can participate in other training, such as explosives detection, when classes become available.
Dutchess County Sheriff Kirk Imperati spoke to the handlers and the K-9s at the end of training and complimented them on their dedication in the very specialized area of law enforcement. “The training is not easy and the calls for service are typically challenging, but the community you serve is much safer because of you.”
One of the Dutchess County Sheriff’s Office (DCSO) K-9’s was repeating the class; not because of bad grades but because the pup’s partner, Todd Grieb, was promoted to DCSO Patrol Division Captain shortly after starting work with Scout. The German Shepherd from the Czech Republic was born on September 10, 2020, and is now partnered with DCSO Deputy Mike DeRosa. Scout and Grieb spent a few minutes on Thursday with Scout reminding the captain how much dog hair can stick to an otherwise spotless dark uniform with just one simple embrace.
Joining K-9 Bruiser and K-9 Scout at the Dutchess County Sheriff’s Office is the youngster Saky, a Hungarian-born German Shepherd, handled by Eastern Dutchess Deputy Tylor Strange.
The Town of Poughkeepsie Police Department has K-9 Kenna, assigned to veteran handler Vanja Mikelic. German Shepherd Kenna, born in the Netherlands on May 2, 2022, is the third four-legged partner to rely on Officer Mikelic for transportation to and from work assignments.
City of Poughkeepsie K-9 Handler John Williams, who was the partner of Ace previously, now has Dutch Shepherd Liva by his side. Liva, with historic European bloodlines, was born in LaGrange, NY on July 12, 2021. The duo will be patrolling the city just in time for Thanksgiving.
From the south, Putnam County Sheriff’s Deputy Chris Tompkins spent 14 weeks training with his new partner Mikey. The K-9 is a German Shepherd/Belgian Malinois mix born on the last day of November 2020, in the Netherlands.
