From Stray Canine To K-9

[User]

Don't let her floppy ears and spotted tongue fool you. Behind her furry exterior, LC has the makings of a persistent, pot-sniffing drug dog.

But LC, a labrador retriever chow mix, wasn't always on the fast track to that crime-sniffing job. Less than a month ago, she was a stray wandering the streets of Lehigh Acres.

"The community helped her, and now she's helping the community," said Adam Leath, kennel operations manager at Lee County's Animal Services shelter.

On May 20, LC, who will be renamed by her handler when she finishes training, was found strolling down Lee Boulevard. She was brought to the Lee County Animal Services shelter by the wife of a Lee County sheriff's deputy, who believed the dog might do well as a drug dog for the sheriff's office.

LC's microchip prevented the shelter from giving her to the sheriff's office right away.

But after fruitless attempts to contact an owner, the shelter let Sgt. Frank Glover, who works with the sheriff's office's K-9 unit, take her out May 29 and test her skills, said Ria Brown, Animal Services spokeswoman.

The initial test of a possible drug dog consists of giving it a toy to play with, then hiding the toy and seeing if the dog hunts for it. LC not only hunted for it, but she did so for about 20 minutes, longer than dogs training for three months, Leath said.

"It's amazing to me because she was a shelter dog at this point," he said.

LC was then brought back to the shelter to await adoption by the sheriff's office.

While she was waiting, she caught a highly contagious upper respiratory virus that made her unadoptable.

The virus, a new strain of canine respiratory coronavirus, caused at least 35 dogs at the shelter to be euthanized in February.

Shelter staff put LC in a quarantined unit and gave her antibiotics to help her runny nose and cough.

"At this point, we were very upset because we'd put in a lot of time and energy," Leath said.

Within 14 days, LC was back to normal, and Glover adopted her and took her to his home June 17.

Now, LC does daily exercises to prepare her for her drug-sniffing duties. She will have to complete 10 weeks of training before she becomes the newest addition to the sheriff's office's 17 drug dogs.

Glover is teaching her to recognize the odor of marijuana by hiding it in a box along with a reward of a rolled-up towel.

Gradually, Glover will start separating the reward until LC searches for just the marijuana and indicates she has found the marijuana by sitting and staring at the box where she found it.

Right now, LC is still learning, Glover said, especially when it comes to the box.

"Sometimes she sits and sometimes she jumps up at it," he said.

Leath said LC's energy may not have made her a perfect house pet, but it apparently has made her a good drug dog.

"This dog would almost seem too much to handle," he said.

Glover said LC has been well behaved, even at home around his daughter.

"She's a sweet little dog," Glover said.


News Hawk: User: http://www.420magazine.com/
Source: News-Press.com
Copyright: 2008 News-Press.net
Contact: news-press.com | Southwest Florida | The News-Press
Website: From stray canine to K-9; Dog saved from streets by Lee deputy

[weedyMcBong]

Good news for the dog, bad news for the stoners...

[weedyMcBong]

I like Khuluna's idea.

[Jimbo]

I say turn her into a bird retriever...where I come from, we call any black lab mix a "Georgia black dog"...actually, dogs like that usually make very smart dogs, because they don't have all those inbreeding traits like a pure bread.
I my self have a lab mix that we took in, and he is one of the smartest dogs I've ever had....and I grew up having Labrador retrievers, because we have always hunted birds.
I just lov'em!
It's too bad I didn't get her before they turned her into a weed hater...lol

By the way Khuluna, if you did that, you can believe that dog would eat your whole stash one day...especially labs, they are real bad about chewing up shit...believe me on that one...lol

[User]

[Jimbo]

Originally Posted by User

That's great Jim...I love it...LMAO!

[User]

^
Glad Ya liked it. The thread inspired me to cook this up last night 8-)

[Jimbo]

lol...what? the brownies or the picture?...lmao

[weedyMcBong]

If thats him in the picture holding brownies that he cooked... RUN. It's the fuzz!

[Jimbo]

Originally Posted by Khuluna

Jimbo, that's exactly what safes are for!

Thats true...my mom calls black labs "goats". I always tell anyone getting a lab, to go to the butcher shop and get some large cow bones to keep them occupied. Those dogs always need something to chew on...otherwise, it's your shoes, hats, baseball gloves, YOUR STASH! or anything else thats not tied down...lol
like I said, "goats"
You certainly wouldn't want to leave your stash laying around at nose level

[User]

we had a lab named crosby. he loved to eat our firewood. you'd see him running around with big split pieces of wood in his mouth looking for a comfortable place to lay down and chew chew chew.

[Jimbo]

Originally Posted by User

we had a lab named crosby. he loved to eat our firewood. you'd see him running around with big split pieces of wood in his mouth looking for a comfortable place to lay down and chew chew chew.

Yep, ours likes to shred pine cones all over the garage...bones work best for labs, anything less and they just shred it...lol

[weedyMcBong]

My lab chewed the remote, every single one of the rawhide chews in his pack, legs of the bed and more. And that's just one night.

[User]

damn i miss that dog.

[Jimbo]

Originally Posted by User

damn i miss that dog.

I know, we've had a bunch of dogs over the years, and I miss all of them.
It's like loosing a member of the family...I get sad just thinking about it.
My two dogs now are really getting old and probably won't be with us much longer, so I feel it's my job to make their lives as happy as I can in the short time they have left, that's really all you can do.