K-9s graduate from Indiana DNR Resource Protection Program

INDIANAPOLIS — Four furry friends and their conservation officer handlers earned their diplomas on Thursday.

K-9’s Jaycie, Annie, Murphy and Frank, along with their handlers, graduated from the Indiana Department of Natural Resources’ K-9 Resource Protection Program.

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A ceremony to honor the graduating teams of dogs and officers was held at the Indiana Statehouse.

As part of the training, the dogs learned to locate people, like missing hikers or campers or suspects, and to detect deer, turkey, duck and other animals.

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“We started out with pretty fresh dogs that are blank slates. We try to form them with baby steps,” Officer Zach Walker, K-9 Jaycie’s handler, said.

Walker says the dogs learned certified tracking, wildlife detection and area searches using just their sense of smell.

“It’s all about the nose,” he said. “We don’t use our dogs for bite work, it’s nose work all the way through.”

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K-9 Jaycie is a year-and-a-half old flat-coated retriever.

“We’re ready to hit the field running,” Walker said.

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Three of the four graduating pairs are from Indiana, and the fourth is from Arkansas.