CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — Every Wednesday, the Nueces County Sheriff’s Office trains their K-9 Deputies over at the McKenzie Annex.
There are currently three K-9 deputies: Hera, Hevel and Grin.
K-9 Hera and K-9 Grin are both trained in tracking, narcotics detection, article search, area search, building search and handler protection. K-9 Hevel is certified in explosive detection and is partnered with Deputy Tristan Borden.
They are both responsible for safeguarding public buildings like county courthouses, local schools and community events. He is also trained in criminal apprehension - in other words he is good at catching the bad guys.
“We work on agility skills, we also work on vehicle detection and odor work and also incorporate some of our patrol unit criminal apprehensions,” Sergeant Rudy Gonzales, who is the handler for K9 Hera said.
Gonzales told KRIS 6 News reporter Naidy Escobar that the Nueces County Sheriff's Office has a lot of out-of-service county units. He and his team go out every Wednesday to train the K-9s all day. They have different obstacle courses that allow them to enhance their skills.
But not only do they train the Nueces County Sheriff’s K-9 deputies, they also help out other surrounding agencies.
"They (other K9 departments) come out to our facility or we go to theirs and we train different ways in which we could deploy our dogs and that way we could integrate and train and become better as a whole,” he said.
Gonzales said he puts on the training and provides different scenarios.
"We train on different techniques or abilities they may need help on and so I'll help facilitate that with other agencies and departments whenever they need help," he added.
The county even saved some money on the obstacle course, by having them made by inmates enrolled in Del Mar College's Continuing Education program.
These K9 deputies really earn their stripes on this course.
“We have a lot of successful tracks and stuff like that and its one of the greatest rewards when your actual training comes into play, when you are able to successfully find people, find drugs, and do all the things you’ve been training for,” Gonzales said.
He added that they are currently working on adding another K9 to their unit and hope the department will continue to grow.
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