For the first time in nearly two years, the Carroll County Sheriff’s Office is fully staffed, and Sheriff, Ken Pingrey, is please that they have even been able to welcome one more new member in the past week.
Pingrey says they made two trips to Canine Tactical of Iowa to tour the facility and see the training process before the decision was made to purchase one of the Belgian Malinois from the Eudoris litter. Pingrey says they looked at a variety of trainers, but there were none that compared to Morton’s operation.
Their K-9 is now 11 months old and Deputy Andrew Smaldone is his handler. The dog will truly only answer to Smaldone, who will house the animal at his home. Morton began training the dog as a pup, and then Smaldone was brought in to undergo a five-week training session. At that time, Morton says, the handler is taught how to work with the animal, and the animal is taught how to react to his handler.
The one word Morton is looking to achieve in training is consistency. He says this became a full-time calling for him after starting the seal program on the east coast as the first canine handler. He did a total of five deployments, three of those with a K-9, and that has given him the experience to draw up his own training system that is tried and proven in a worst-case environment. Pingrey says this is an important factor as he and the deputies are covering a large area and facing many different obstacles and scenarios every day. The K-9 team will be invaluable in a variety of different ways.
The Sheriff had been considering options for a new dog, knowing eventually the day would come when their previous K-9 unit, Ike, would retire. This happened sooner than expected when Ike developed some health issues and was retired to Lt. Tom Fransen’s acreage in mid-August. They have a lot of money wrapped up in canine equipment and Pingrey says it would be foolish to let that sit there. The dogs are a great tool, he says, and if it helps keep someone from getting injured or helps find someone who is lost, it is well worth it. The Sheriff’s Office dog is a littermate to the Carroll Police Department K-9 Unit, Eudoris, who underwent training with his handler, Officer Justin Ferrin, at the same time as Smaldone. Eudoris also went into active duty over the past week.
Officer Ferrin and Eudoris
Below is a highlight reel that Joshua Morton of Canine Tactical of Iowa has put together on this five-week training course.
