K9 retiring after nine years of service

VW independent staff/submitted information

PAULDING — The Paulding County Sheriff’s Office is celebrating K9 Cooper’s 10th birthday, as well as his retirement. Cooper was purchased with a generous donation from the Cooper Family Foundation.

“I remember when Caleb and I went to pick out this dog,” Sheriff Jason K. Landers said. “We discussed how fitting to name him Cooper in honor of the Cooper Family Foundation. I believe Caleb and K9 Cooper have lived up to the standards the Cooper family would expect, and I am very thankful of their support of the sheriff’s office.”

K9 Cooper was born January 29, 2014, purchased by Paulding County Sheriff’s Office on March 24, 2015, and put into service after extensive training on July 17, 2015. K9 Cooper was assigned to Deputy Caleb Miller, and the two spent 15 weeks completing the canine academy in Allen County, Indiana. K9 Cooper was imprinted to alert to marijuana, cocaine, crack cocaine, methamphetamine and heroin. During his tenure on patrol, K9 Cooper alerted to all of the aforementioned illegal substances leading to criminal charges and convictions of numerous suspects.

“Caleb and Cooper have been a fantastic team over the past eight plus years. They were part of one of the largest seizures of drugs in Paulding County, being one kilogram of meth,” Landers said. “Cooper is probably the most obedient dog I’ve been around and that’s a testament to the time Caleb has spent working with him over the years. We’re sad to see Cooper retire but grateful he will get to relax with Caleb’s family and enjoy the next chapter of life.”

During K9 Cooper’s years on patrol, he has been a part of not only alerting to narcotics, but tracking wanted persons, locating missing persons or persons suffering from mental health crisis, conducting sniffs for illegal substances in schools or businesses and showing off during many public demonstrations about police dogs.

K9 Cooper’s last shift is today. The sheriff’s office still has two canines in-service and Sheriff Landers is looking over options to add another dog to replace Cooper in the future.