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- bianca phillips
- Off the streets and onto the beat: Dixee finds a home with the Memphis Police Department.
A few months ago, Dixee was a homeless mutt on the streets of Olive Branch, Mississippi. Now she's a working member of the Memphis Police Department (MPD).
For several years, the MPD has adopted rescues such as Dixee to sniff out narcotics with the Organized Crime Unit (OCU) rather than shell out big bucks for German Shepherds from police canine vendors. Of the department's 10 drug dogs, eight are rescues.
"It's cost effective to train rescues," says Keith Watson, who oversees training of the dogs. "Some of the trained police dogs cost $10,000 to $15,000. But I can spend $5 of city-funded gas to drive to a local shelter and pay $30 or get the dog donated to the city of Memphis. Then I can turn that dog into one of those $10,000 dogs."
Dixee, a tan-colored Labrador and hound mix, was picked up by Olive Branch Animal Control and then adopted through Tipton County's Dogs 2nd Chance program. From there, she went to live in 2nd Chance director Linda Sutphin's home as a foster. In May, Sutphin contacted the MPD to suggest that Dixee might make a good police dog.
"Every dog is not born, designed, or has the enthusiasm to be a police dog," Watson says. "So I give the dogs a seven-point test, and a lot more fail than pass. But sometimes you get a dog that passes the test, and you have a pretty good feeling about it. Dixee had that when I first looked at her."
At Sutphin's home, Watson tested Dixee to determine her level of interest in a tennis ball. Police dogs are trained to sniff out drugs when officers place the odor of narcotics on dog toys.
"[Watson] put a tennis ball under a milk crate and then he stood on the crate. Dixee knocked him off to get to that ball," Sutphin says. "He was very impressed with Dixee."
Dixee whizzed through training, where she learned to detect the presence of marijuana, cocaine, heroin, and methamphetamines. But not every rescue can handle the stress of police training.
"A lot of rescued dogs have been abused, and when it comes to training, there's a high level of pressure," Watson says. "Some dogs can't take that, and they crash."
Once an animal passes training, they are assigned to a handler. Dogs live as pets in the handler's home, and they accompany their handlers on search warrants and drug raids to detect narcotics.
"The dogs often outlast the police officers," Watson says. "A typical narcotics agent doesn't stay in the department more than five or six years due to promotions. A dog can work about 12 to 13 years depending on the diet and exercise that the handler maintains."
Other K-9 unit dogs have come from the Memphis Animal Shelter as well as from shelters in Hernando, Mississippi, and Lauderdale County.
"These dogs go from death row to a life of luxury," Watson says. "They go from almost losing their lives to saving lives, especially when we're able to stop shipments of drugs from going through our city."
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Go Dixie!! WE Love you!!
Sutphin Family
http://dogs2ndchance.org
Dogs2ndChance...saving one dog at a time..now saving many lives at a time...you go Dixie
I have one request for anyone who just read this wonderful article. Please treat your dogs with respect and as a member of your family. They are caring animals with feelings and a lot of intelligence, as evidenced by the great work that "one homeless pup wandering the streets of Olive Branch" can accomplish. For those of you who have fallen on hard times and have to move, take your dogs with you. Don't leave them chained up with no food or water to fend for themselves. For those of you who are considering adopting a puppy, DO YOUR HOMEWORK first and find out as much as you can about that particular breed. Invest time in training them. The reward you will receive is unconditional love all the days of your life. God bless Linda Suthpin at Dogs 2nd Chance for giving Dixee a chance at proving to the world what a great dog she truly is and thanks to the Memphis Police Department for adding Dixee to their staff. I hope this establishes a precedent with other law enforcement agencies around the Tri-State area!
You show 'em Dixee!! What a GREAT story and happy ending for this baby.
For all those who callously say "it's just a dog".....may Dixee find illegal narcotics in their possession.....then they can be "just an inmate" :)
Thank you Linda Suthpin of Dogs 2nd Chance and MPD for giving this girl a chance for a new life. She is a hero!
I think it's awful that we have to look outside our city's borders to find competent dog officers. What happened to MPD's residency requirement?
Kerry Hayes = Leading candidate for "comment of the week"
Hey. I thinks me started that = thing on here.
Can I claim it? come on.
What happens if a dog does not pass the training? Does it go back to the shelter?
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