The Bay County Sheriff’s Office K-9 Unit is a group of deputies specially trained in handling dogs for locating criminal suspects, narcotics, explosives or missing people. The K-9 Unit currently consists of four deputies and five dogs, including two German Shepherds, one Blood Hound, one Belgian Malinois and a Black Labrador.

Each K-9 deputy is required to have a minimum of 400 hours training in the handling of these special animals. In addition, ongoing training is conducted in narcotics, explosives and search and rescue. The dogs live with their handlers, and this helps form a closer working relationship, enabling the deputies to be familiar with every aspect of the dogs’ behavior. The dogs ride along with the deputies in their normal patrol zone, and they may be requested to assist deputies as well as other agencies when K-9 support is requested 

 

SMELL - This is a dog’s primary sense, and it is much stronger than a human’s. Where humans have 5-10 million olfactory cells, a K-9 has 220 million!

SIGHT - K-9’s see much better at night than humans, giving them a greater ability to sense movement. Their color vision is limited

SPEED - A working K-9 can run up to 30 mph

AGILITY - K-9’s can jump very high and get into places humans cannot safely enter.

Rev 06/01/2023