The Polk County Sheriff’s Office has a new deputy. Please join us in welcoming BUFFY, their new K9. Buffy is a three-year-old Belgian Malinois / Shepherd mix, and the sheriff’s office thinks she is going to be a wonderful addition to the agency.
Mark McDonough from McDonough K9 of Anoka, MN, donated training for both Buffy and her K9 handler. Mark McDonough and Sheriff Jim Tadman each served as K9 handlers from 1996 – 2001 for their respective agencies. McDonough K9 provides exceptional working dogs for law enforcement agencies as well as for family protection. They will be training both Buffy and her handler, Deputy Kyle Olson. Deputy Olson has been with the Sheriff’s Office since 2014 and has distinguished himself within the office.
Polk County Sheriff Jim Tadman said he’s ecstatic that the program is getting such a fast start thanks to McDonough. “I’m really ecstatic,” said Tadman. “This came all of a sudden with my contact with Mark McDonough K9 out of Anoka. During our conversation, we found out that we were in K9 together, certified with USPCA, and went to trials together. As we were talking about our funding, he offered to donate a K9 and training to get our program off the ground. It’s something that we can’t pass up. We have a long way to go to raise money for equipment, but we’ll be off and running here in the middle of March, sending our handler Kyle Olson and K9, Buffy, back down to McDonough K9. It went so fast with how this came about with Mark’s help. I can’t appreciate enough what he’s doing with our office.”
Deputy Olson and Buffy will begin their 10-12-week training in a few weeks once they have had a chance to get to know each other, said Tadman. “I got a call from Mark, and he said – we’ve got a K9 for you and would like to meet the handler and get her in his hands,” said Tadman. “It’s an important time for them to bond together before they go into the training. That’s what Deputy Olson is doing now. They’ll go down in the middle of March (for training) anywhere from 10-12 weeks, depending on how well they do and what items they need to be working on. In seeing some videos and hearing what the dog is already doing from Mark, I think it’s going to go great. Hopefully, they are a great match, and that’s the biggest thing, the bonding part right now.”
The Sheriff’s Office will be posting updates on our Facebook page as her training progresses.
The Sheriff’s K9 Association is still seeking funds and will be planning K9 fundraisers in the near future.
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