Murray County K-9 to retire

• Baily

justine wettschreck/Daily Globe Murray County Deputy Brian Gass and his K-9 partner, Bailey, have been together for seven years, working to remove drugs from the streets. Bailey will retire in the near future and live a life of leisure with the Gass family.

Talk about it

SLAYTON — Bailey has been fighting crime for the majority of her life, working to get drugs off the street. Now, at the ripe old age of 8, retirement looms near.

The Murray County Commissioners Tuesday approved a motion to replace the current K-9 dog, Bailey, with a new drug-sniffing officer. It won’t happen immediately, since Murray County Deputy Brian Gass, the K-9 handler, has to pick out a new dog, consult with the trainer and possibly wait for training to take place.

So Bailey will be on the streets for an undetermined amount of time yet.

The new dog will very likely be a Labrador and will be purchased completely trained for $5,200. The dog will be proficient in alerting on drug odors and in tracking and come with six-month guarantees in workability and medical issues. The cost of purchasing the dog will come out of the money Bailey has found during drug seizures.

“There should be plenty there,” Murray County Sheriff Steve Telkamp told the commissioners. “She has done a fantastic job.”

In her first two years on the department, Bailey found more than $7 million in drugs and property, Gass said.

“And it is more than that,” he explained. “She can search an acreage in a couple of hours, which saves a tremendous amount of money in officer time.”

Because drug trafficking tends to go hand-in-hand with other crimes such as burglary, theft and violence, Bailey’s contributions to the department have led to arrests for more than drug charges. Being a dog, she does it all for fun. Just like other K-9 officers, finding drug odor is a game to Bailey — one that earns her a favorite toy.

“It all is just a game. She doesn’t know what drugs are,” Gass said.

While at a training session, an instructor asked the handlers if their dogs loved them.

“If you can’t answer ‘yes’ to that, you’re in trouble,” Gass said.

Bailey lives with Gass and his family, so the two spend a majority of their time together. Because of this, Gass admitted he has struggled with making the decision to replace her for more than a year. Most K-9s retire after five to seven years of service, he said, and Bailey has put in more than seven years. In people years, she is 56 years old, yet still hopping in and out of cars and performing feats of agility most dogs wouldn’t attempt.

“It is unusual for her breed,” Gass said. “She has really exceeded expectations.”

Bailey is still proficient in sniffing out illegal substances and more than ready to play her favorite game, but physically, she’s slowing down.

“We have talked about this for a while now,” Telkamp told the commissioners. “The hardest part about it is our attachment to the dog.”

Bailey will not be euthanized, but will instead retire comfortably to live with Gass. Per county policy, a handler is given the opportunity to purchase his or her K-9 partner from the department upon its retirement.

Gass said it is very common among K-9 units worldwide to let retiring animals live with their former handlers.

Bailey still has some search and seizure left in her, but knowing her age is beginning to show, the department made the proactive choice to get another animal trained and ready to go, so Bailey can retire in comfort.

“If we continue to use her indefinitely, her condition could go downhill and maybe leave us without a K-9 for a period,” Gass said. “This way, she gets to just be a dog. She has worked hard, and she deserves to relax.”

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