. . . Hey big fella, is that a drug detection dog in your pocket or are you really glad to see me?
This story warmed and charmed and made me smile. Reported by WKYC TV in Cleveland, it has several pictures of Midge, the latest recruit to the K-9 corps of Geauga County’s Sheriff’s Department.
As reported on the station’s website:
For the last seven years, there has been one top dog in the Geauga County Sheriff’s Department – Brutus, the big German Shepherd has been the go-to canine.
But that’s about to change.
Here comes “Midge” … two pounds of raw recruit police power.
It’s a 3-month-old miniature Chihuahua with a little Rat Terrier mixed in, who has one major talent right now.
“She is cute,” Geauga Sheriff Dan McClelland said. “She is little. She’s very friendly. She likes people a lot.”
Midge, in her little uniform, is already patrolling the hallways at the county jail and the sheriff has plans to train her as the smallest drug dog in the state of Ohio.
“I had this idea that I’ve toyed with for a few years … why couldn’t a small dog be used just as well?” McClelland asked.
“She watches everybody comes in the room,” Sheriff Dept. Deputy Carrie Jericho said. “Her ears perk up and she watches who’s coming in.”
So far Brutus, who obviously has a sense of humor, has taken to the new tiny trainee.
And the department’s K-9 trainer thinks Midge has a bright future.
“I know from my work that kids and dogs get the people’s hearts,” K9 Deputy Lt. Tom McCaffrey said.
She won’t begin her training as a drug detection canine for another six months.
Even on her tiptoes, Midge is only two feet high.
“She’s not going to strike fear into a whole lot of folks,” McClelland said. “That’s not her job.”
On further thought, I wonder what the scope of her duties as a drug detection dog will be. It’s one thing to have her sniff around school lockers, another to put her really dangerous situations. Well, any more dangerous than your average high school. Which may be dangerous enough, but that’s as they say a whole nother subject.
I often see beagles at the airport, a federal agency (either Customs or US Dept of Agriculture) uses them to sniff passengers’ luggage and carryons for incoming contraband such as meat and fruit. They are friendly low-key dogs, but not so tiny that they could be easily stamped on by a careless or malicious person.
Now I’ve moved from being charmed to being worried about that little dog’s safety on the job.
