I have permission from Jason to republish his post.

When I receive notice that there has been a new follower of Learning from Dogs I go across to their blog site and leave a ‘thank you’ note..

So it was with Jason who, I assume, is a relatively new member of the WordPress club. He has published a blog Life Journeys and Passions. The first post is How I met my first working dog.

As soon as I read it I contacted Jason and asked his permission to share it with you all.

Here it is!

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How I met my first working dog.

April 6th, 2023

Hello, my name is Jason. For as long as I can remember, I have loved dogs. Dogs have been a big part of my life while growing up. They have also been a big part of having a family with kids. 

I am super lucky, because over the last couple of years, I have had the job of my dreams. I get to work with a dog every day. This dog has become my best friend, she has become my work partner, and she has become a very important part of my family.

I am excited to share my stories about this big, floppy eared, wrinkly faced, hard working Bloodhound. Would it surprise any of you that the job that Sophie and I do every day is to help find people that have gone missing?

Her nose, second to none in the dog world, has helped the community where we work to find people in many aspects. We have found criminals that have ran away from law enforcement, we have found missing children that ran away from home, and we have helped look for people that for any number of circumstances were in danger if they weren’t found in a timely manner.

This is Sophie!

I hope to be able to entertain you with stories of this wonderful dog. She’s got a stubborn streak both while working and while at home. She has made life interesting to be sure, and more entertaining and loving than I deserve in a friend and partner. I want to share my story of how I met her. 

Unfortunately, her story wasn’t one without a few struggles of her own. She had to deal with some struggles before I was able to be lucky enough to have her stumble head first into my life. Maybe in some ways though, her and I were better off having to work through some of the repercussions of moving away from multiple families. Maybe because of what she went through, it opened my eyes to the opportunity to train with her in more than just search and rescue type work. 

It’s been a long road from the time that I got her. Trying to help her get through her anxiety and stress that led to her sometimes biting people, dog aggression, and sometimes just not wanting to listen to me at all.

The dog that I live with now is still a working machine. She loves the hunt more than anything else. So much so that if we go too many days without it, she starts destroying my house. Instead of the biting and hating other dogs, she now gets to live with my family of a wife and two children. She has grown to love and co-exist with a stubborn Rottweiler that constantly gives her a run for her money.

I still wonder how I had the opportunity to have a dog that was born and raised in Massachusetts. At least for the first two years of her life.

Her story started with a hound handler that had many years, and many hounds during his time of working with dogs. Sophie was still really young when her handler had an unfortunate thing happen to him. He injured his back to where he was no longer able to run with a hound the same way he had in the past.

With her age, abilities, and ultimately what she was bred for, her first owner decided that he still wanted the world to have the opportunity to have Sophie provide her assistance to a community somewhere.

Across the United States in the state of Utah was a small police department that had been in contact with the organization that Sophie’s handler was part of. The police chief with this department had attended a seminar where this organization presented the abilities and benefits of a hound working for a local police department.

This police chief made quick friends with the people of this organization. He was also invited to Massachusetts where he spent some time watching the hounds work. Learning first hand what these amazing dogs can do to help find missing people.

When this organization realized that Sophie needed a new home, they contacted this chief from Utah and told them of a rare opportunity they wanted to offer him. They told him that they had a hound that needed to be re-homed. That she was a couple of years old, and was fully trained in her abilities. All she needed was a handler and a department willing to use her. The chief of police sent his lieutenant to Massachusetts where he spent about a week learning the basics of how Sophie worked. The lieutenant then drove back to Utah to start a bloodhound unit program with this police department.

A couple of years in of getting this program off of the ground, another incident happened. Sophie’s new handler got injured. For month’s it was thought that the lieutenant would be back to work. He was adamant that he wanted to stay with the department until Sophie retired so he could take her with him. He came to the realization though, that he was going to have to leave before Sophie could retire.

It was rumored around the police department that Sophie was just going to retire with the lieutenant even though she had years left available to keep working and providing for the community. One day, the lieutenant announced that he wanted officers to put in letters of interest to be the new hound handler for the department. He told those interested that there was going to be a panel of three officers, all hound handlers from Utah, that would decide who the best candidate would be for Sophie.

I was about two years into my career as a law enforcement officer at this same police department where Sophie worked. When I first started in law enforcement, my goal and biggest dreams were to work with a dog in some capacity. When I heard that they were looking for people that wanted the position, I didn’t think much of it. I was newer, other more experienced officers were putting in for the position, and I didn’t know if I wanted to run a tracking/trailing dog. I had always dreamed of having a dog that helped find drugs or had a more known job as a police officer.

I was called by my lieutenant shortly after the position to be Sophie’s handler opened up. He was aware that I have always wanted to be a K9 handler. He knew that I spent a lot of time working with another officer with the department that has a dog used to find drugs. He told me that he wanted me to put in for the position.

I wrote my letter of interest, then started the process of getting ready to interview. I had a small amount of experience with training a dog that I had previously that had behavior issues. My experience was no more than working with a company that helped with behavioral modification for my dog that had health and anxiety issues.

During the interview, among many questions, I was asked what experience I had working with dogs. I shared the small bit of experience that I had. Among all the other questions that stood out to me was asking if my family was prepared for the time and energy it took to be a police K9 handler. I was able to explain to them that my wife was very aware that having a dog in a working capacity has been a dream of mine even before meeting her. That I probably have no idea how big of a commitment this really was, but if given the opportunity, I would give it my all and put forth all the effort I could to succeed.

Hours after the interview, my lieutenant called me and one other officer that made it to the final interview process. The call was to announce to the two of us who had gotten the position. I expected this other officer, almost a 20 year veteran officer, to get the position. Well, I was pleasantly surprised and shocked that my name was the one called to be Sophie’s next handler!

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I hope you read it completely through because you would agree with me that this is most interesting. Hopefully, Jason will be publishing more posts.