The Polk County Sheriff’s Office announced the addition of a new K9 team last week. The duo is Deputy Ben Stout and two-and-a-half-year-old K9 partner Shepherd/Belgian Malinois mix Rex. Last Wednesday was Rex’s first day after graduating from K9 Training.
Both Rex and Deputy Ben Stout attended handler training with Mark McDonough of McDonough K9 in Anoka. “The whole training was 13 weeks, and it was a long 13 weeks driving back and forth on the weekends,” said Stout. “It was long days of training, so graduation day felt pretty good. The ceremony was fairly short, and we ran through a few of the various things we learned over the course of the training.”
Both Polk County Sheriff Jim Tadman and Mark McDonough were K9 handlers from 1996-2001, and McDonough has experience training other Polk County Sheriff K9 teams. McDonough K9 has provided exceptional working dogs for law enforcement agencies over the years.
For Stout, this will be his first time being a part of a K9 team but he says Rex is already all business. “Over the weekend when I was on my days off, anytime I would let him out, he would run over to my squad car, so he’s been ready to go” said Stout.
A career usually varies for a K9, but the average time in the line of duty is somewhere between six to nine years of service. Deputy Stout has been with the Polk County Sheriff’s Office since 2017 and will now be a part of one of the Office’s two K9 units.
