Thursday, September 14, 2016
The three deputies of the Augusta County Sherriff’s K-9 unit gave a presentation at C.F. Richards Christian School Wednesday as part of the Kindergarten through 4th grades focus on our community. Deputies Pultz, Randozza and Wells are the handlers of dogs that work for the county and spent an hour with the students describing their jobs, training of the dogs, and the different types of cases they have worked on.
The deputies spend many hours training and building relationships with their dogs so they can work as an effective team. Deputy Pultz stated that the dog and handler become very close. The handlers and dogs are on call at all times, responsive to the needs of the community. The handlers explained the responsibilities of the police service dogs. The dogs’ skills include: tracking missing people and suspects, searching for narcotics and other articles, chasing and apprehending suspects, and protecting their handlers.
The students of C. F. Richards Christian School enjoyed watching the dogs respond to their handlers’ commands. One of the dogs demonstrated how they track for drugs by finding a substance hidden in a soda can. We learned that the blood hound once went tracking for 36 hours to solve a case, the hound and his handler Deputy Wells went on over 70 cases last year. The handlers patiently answered the many questions of the students while sharing their dogs with us.
The students and staff of C.F. Richards are very grateful for the visit of the deputies and for the service the handlers and their dogs provide our community.
CFR Blog 