There’s a new deputy dog in town
Rhett, who recently completed his K-9 training, is partnered with Deputy Jimmy Allred.
The Floyd County Sheriff’s Office is welcoming a new officer to its ranks: Deputy Rhett. Rhett recently completed his K-9 training in Arkansas and is now becoming used to his new home and job. The 18-month old Belgian Malinois is partnered 24 hours a day with Deputy Jimmy Allred to help speed that process and strengthen their bond.
The Floyd County Sheriff’s Office has had a K-9 unit since 2006, and now has two K-9 officers, Rhett and Deputy Snickers, a bloodhound partnered with Deputy Mike Williams. Rhett’s new duties include narcotics detection, such as methamphetamines,
marijuana, cocaine, heroin and all of their derivative substances, criminal apprehension and tracking. In tracking, Allred explained that Rhett works from ground disturbances and the scent of the individual he is tracking.
Allred demonstrated how something as minute as a broken blade of grass can tip off Deputy Rhett’s sensitive nose.
“Their nose has a Jacobson’s gland that, so to speak, magnifies odor signals and sends them to their brains,” Allred said. “There are 26 or so odors that he can discriminate between simultaneously. When he’s smelling something like a car tire, it’s a cornucopia, a buffet of odors for him.”
Allred also pointed out that Deputy Rhett understands German. This helps him to isolate Allred’s commands from others in the human speech patterns Rhett encounters during work.
Deputy Rhett took 12 weeks of training at the Little Rock K-9 Academy in Little Rock, Arkansas, including two weeks of bonding time with Deputy Allred that allowed them to learn to work together.
“When I went out to Little Rock, I had five dogs to choose from, and I narrowed it down to three, Rhett, Diego and Robin. When I was walking past them in their kennels, I could see the way Rhett looked up at me. He put his paw through the kennel and I took it. A lot of dogs won’t let you hold their paws, so that’s when I knew he was the one. I’m his first human,” Allred said. “It’s my job as his handler to socialize him to people and get him used to working in
environments he’s never encountered.”
“We should be back in our K-9 unit in the next couple of weeks,” Allred said. Allred and Rhett are in a temporary vehicle until the K-9 unit car is ready. The K-9 unit car
features safety technology to ensure that Deputy Rhett is always safe if he has to stay in the vehicle, including devices to measure and moderate temperature. According to Allred, if the temperature in the K-9 unit car reaches
85 degrees, the windows automatically drop and the beacons turn on.
Currently there aren’t plans for Rhett to participate in community outreach programs. First he’s getting used to his new job and home.