• Originally published July 30, 2008 at 11:32 p.m., updated July 30, 2008 at 11:32 p.m.

CUERO – One of the promises DeWitt County Sheriff Jode Zavesky made during his re-election campaign was to bring a narcotics dog to his department.

With the help of monetary contributions from the community that K9 officer has joined the sheriff’s office and on Friday, Aike (pronounced eye-ka) and her partner, Deputy Jerry LaGrange, made the first arrest involving the dog.

At about 2 a.m. LaGrange, on patrol on U.S. Highway 183 North near McCoy Creek, spotted a car with a headlight out. When he walked up to the car, he smelled what he thought was marijuana, Zavesky said.

He was given consent to search the car and Aike, a 3-year-old Belgian Malinois, found a plastic bag containing the pot that had been stuck down in the back seat by a passenger, said Zavesky. About nine grams of pot was confiscated said the sheriff.

Carlos N. Gutierrez, 17 of Victoria, was arrested for possession of marijuana and was released when he posted $800 bail.

Ranging reporter Sonny Long sat down with the sheriff and discussed the newest asset to his department.

Q:When did Aike join the department?

A: We actually purchased her in December 2007. That’s when we signed the contract with Worldwide Canine. Our schedule didn’t match up to their training schedule until January. Deputy LaGrange went up to San Antonio in January and spent two weeks with the trainers and Aike, getting acclimated together.

Q:What kind of training did they both go through?

A: She was trained for narcotics detection and tracking. When we went up and looked at a bunch of different dogs she was really attentive and seemed to be on top of her game. She had been through all the training she needed when we got her. What Jerry was taught was how to watch the dog, how to react to the dog. It’s not as easy as the dog sitting down and telling you here it is. You really have to pay attention to the dog’s demeanor, what the dog is doing. That tells the deputy a great deal before she ever does her alert. Once she actually finds something, she scratches. The handler will say “show me” and she’ll scratch. Her reward is getting to play with her toy. She’s not working; she’s playing.

Q:What language are the deputy’s commands in?

A: Czech. She came from Czechoslovakia. Deputy LaGrange had to learn some basic Czech commands. It took a few days to get those done. It is going to take more training, but her and Jerry are going to work out well. As they continue to train together, we have hopes it is going to get better and better.

Q:Talk a little bit about paying for the dog.

A: At a community meeting in Yoakum, the citizens wanted to know what it would cost to get a dog. I told them about $10,000. Cindy and Lowell Martin, I pat them on the back, they said they’d get the money, and they sure did. They went out and solicited donations. The DeWitt County Sheriff’s reserves also had a raffle. We were able to pay for the dog, training, kennel, and retrofit the patrol car. We have a few dollars left over. The only thing the county is out is the manpower.

• Print
• •
• Share
  • Share this item

    Send this to a friend

    Share on FaceBook

  • Grab the link

    Copy and paste the link:

  • Blog about it

    Blog about this page.

  • Close
• •
• Post a Comment
• •
• Favorite
• •
• Report error
  • Thank you for your submission.
    Error report or correction

    Contact name (optional) Contact phone/e-mail (optional)  

    
  • Close
• •