The only known bloodhound K9 to be hired the state is beginning his new job with the Deschutes County Sheriff’s Office. K9 “Copper” was named by the residents of Deschutes County and donated to the Deschutes County Sheriff’s Office in 2019 by Tamaron Ranch Bloodhound Kennels in Chowchilla, California.
According to a news release from the DCSO: Bob Cameron, a resident of Deschutes County who has a lengthy history working bloodhounds for law enforcement agencies and search and rescue assisted.
Bob has confidence in the bloodhound breed, and he knows the value and benefits of a well- trained Bloodhound for law enforcement agencies. Bob has arranged and coordinated several other Bloodhound K9 donations to other Law Enforcement agencies, and as an experienced bloodhound handler himself he knows what qualities to look for when selecting a good working dog.
On February 22 Deschutes County Sheriff’s Office Bloodhound K9, “Copper,” and his handler, Deputy Donny Patterson attended the West-Coast National Police Bloodhound Association (NPBA) working dog training seminar hosted by Goldstone K9 in Riverside County California.
This annual training seminar was coordinated by the recently retired Riverside County Sheriff’s Office Captain, Dr. Coby Webb. Dr. Webb is a NPBA K9 Master Trainer, a board member of the NPBA, and she has a close connection to Deschutes County with family members residing in this area. Dr. Webb has devoted her own personal time to help train and prepare K9 Copper and his handler in this career.
K9 Copper is the only known Bloodhound K9 to be employed, NPBA certified and working Bloodhound for a law enforcement agency in Oregon. Dr. Webb, whom herself started the use of Bloodhounds in southern California basically took K9 Copper under her wing by guiding this new team through various training exercises to become a successful and established working Bloodhound K9 team.
Several Certified NPBA K9 Master Trainers from the East-Coast, to include Georgia and Virginia flew to this training seminar to assist with training. Each K9 handler, and their K9 partner were accompanied by a NPBA Master Trainer for each trail that was followed by each Bloodhound K9 team.
The working dog training started out with a lengthy classroom day that covered recent case law, K9 field medical treatment, record keeping, and a number of other training areas solely based on the bloodhound breed, and their uses by law enforcement agencies. This training was followed by a written exam which Deputy Patterson successfully passed.
The following training days were comprised of several training areas of which K9 Copper and Deputy Patterson had to successfully complete to obtain the NPBA Man Trailing Certification. Some of these challenges included working scent trails in various environments; Trailing through a busy populated outdoor shopping mall with outdoor dining, trailing in the hot desert, trailing through rural communities, parking garages, swampy areas, forested areas, rolling hills, and parks.
Each trail that was laid had an estimated set time of 45-minutes -2 hours, before a Bloodhound team was allowed to begin working the trail. Other areas of training included trailing from various scent articles to include; An exterior car door handle, a car seat, a pocket knife, a soda can, an empty chip bag, gauze, and or whatever else the instructors would provide you with for your K9 partner to scent from. Each K9 team also worked several confusing trails were several decoys would cross the main trail layers’ trail, or pick up the trail layer in a vehicle at the end of the trail, or being provided a negative scent article where the scent item provided to the K9 was not affiliated with a person in the area, thus there was no trail matching the scent article provided.
K9 Copper preformed each of these exercises, most of which he had never experienced before. After 5-days of training in the hot environment, K9 Copper successfully completed and obtained his NPBA Man Trailing Certification.
Deputy Patterson and K9 Copper have returned to Deschutes County after certifying. The Sheriff’s Office is excited to have this valuable resource available to serve our community.
The Deschutes County Sheriff’s Office is a full service agency that oversees the adult jail, provides patrol, criminal investigations, civil process and search and rescue operations. Special units include SWAT, Marine Patrol, ATV Patrol, Forest Patrol, along with six K9 teams. Founded in 1916 and today led by your duly elected Sheriff L. Shane Nelson, the Deschutes County Sheriff’s Office serves over 200,000 residents in Deschutes County. The agency has 259 authorized and funded personnel, which includes 191 sworn employees who provide services to the 3,055 square miles of Deschutes County.
