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Police K-9, Buddy, aids investigations

Officer Dalen Wood is shown below with the department's new dual-purpose K-9, Buddy.

After Broken Bow Police Department welcomed Buddy, a Dutch shepherd K-9, to the department on June 20, 2009, he got called to duty the very next day, according to K-9 Officer Dalen Wood.

"He was deployed to bring an aggressive prisoner out of the back of a patrol car, and it worked," Wood said.

The 16-month-old black and brindle canine was imported from Czechoslovakia and takes his commands in Czech, Wood said. Broken Bow Police Department purchased Buddy from Worldwide Canine, Inc., in Spring Branch, Texas. The addition of a drug dog to the department was made possible thanks to a grant of $8,500 from the Custer County Foundation, used to purchase the dog, and a grant of $2,500 from the Custer County Drug Board, used to fund training for Buddy and Officer Wood.

Wood spent three weeks in Spring Branch, Texas, where he and Buddy trained together before the new dog was put into service. During the training, Wood and Buddy did drug searches in jails, halfway houses and dorms, where Buddy did find drugs.

The new K-9 is a dual-purpose dog who can search for the odor of narcotics, search and track humans and bite on command. He can sniff out the odor of marijuana, heroin, cocaine, methamphetamine and some other drugs as well.

He tracks humans through ground displacement, Wood explained, sniffing to detect where someone steps, which doesn't smell the same as the ground around it. He can sniff across dirt, concrete, sand or water.

Buddy replaced Wood's 11-year-old K-9, Charly, who is finally retired and "living comfortably" at Wood's home. During his career, Charly helped Wood find one of the largest state highway seizure of drugs in Nebraska.

"Buddy's got some big shoes to fill," Wood said. "Because Charly's awesome."