Warren County Sheriff’s Office welcomes new firearm detection K-9, Rocky

BOWLING GREEN, Ky. – Meet Rocky, the new firearms detection K-9 for the Warren County Sheriff’s Office! 

This 16-month-old full-blood black Labrador from Auburn University trained under Global K9 with Sheriff’s Deputy Dean Clark.

They just completed training and began work this month in preparation for the school year. 

Rocky is trained to detect if a person is armed, find spent shell casings or if someone tossed out a firearm. 

Rocky is the first firearms detection dog in western Kentucky, according to Clark.

“There’s no other resource like this in all of western Kentucky. And so everyone agreed it was a great idea, took a little bit of time to get the funding. But once we did, the decision was made. We contracted through Global K9, through Auburn University and I was told, get ready to go spend the summer in Auburn and you’re getting a dog. I was beyond excited,” said Clark.

He does such a good job that he is actually in the process of learning not to alert.

The way Rocky alerts is by pulling hard on the leash in the direction of the scent and sitting in front of the object or person with the scent.

“We call it selective disobedience. So if, if, someone is moving this way and they have a gun on them, I’ll give him leash and I’ll go to turn this way, well when he reaches the end of the leash, he has to make a decision. ‘Is this an odor I’m supposed to follow?’ And if it is, he will pull and not let me pull him off of it. So they are trained a little bit different. He’s much more out in front of me, he’s not really dependent on me to tell him what to do. He’s constantly searching and sniffing the air,” said Clark.

Clark has fallen in love with his new partner.

“He is just so playful. First thing in the morning when I get him out, and we go out, and I feed him. And then he just gets to play and be a dog for a little bit. He’s got a special rope toy that we play with, and I’ll pull on it for a little bit, and then he will just spin around in circles and shaking it with his head. And he’s just such a fun loving dog,” said Clark.

If you see Rocky patrolling the schools, events or helping out on a crime scene, smile and wave to him and Clark. 

Rocky is rewarded with his special ball. If he’s playing with his ball, he alerted correctly.