Ash

Deputy Chad Mills has had his hands full recently with his new colleague at the Baker County Sheriff’s Office.

Quite literally, depending on the time of day.

But of course she’s only nine weeks old.

The sheriff’s office welcomed its newest recruit on Jan. 23 — Deputy Daisy.

Daisy is a bloodhound pup donated by Trish Marshall, Mark McDowell and Karley Reddick of Jerome, Idaho. Sheriff Travis Ash said the dog is worth $1,500 to $2,000.

Daisy is the third tracking dog to join the Sheriff’s office. Crusher and Pepper are air scent dogs who sniff the air to find any human in front of them. They are owned by members of the sheriff’s office’s search and rescue team.

Daisy, though, will be trained to track people based on the scent from an article of clothing, Sheriff Travis Ash said.

“So we can give her a hat and then if she knows the last known location of where I left and has my scent, her job is going to be to trail the person that’s missing or wherever the scent takes her,” Ash said.

Mills, who is training and caring for Daisy, is working to socialize the puppy.

“We’re still working on the training bit,” Mills said. “We’re hoping within the next ten, eleven months or so we can get her going full board on the tracking and we can actually deploy her.”

But already Daisy has demonstrated the instinct that could help her save somebody’s life in Northeastern Oregon’s remote country.

“Her nose is constantly working,” Ash said. “She’s constantly on the go when she’s in the office.”

Daisy’s training exercises will begin with treats spread out over a short distance.

“We’ll gradually expand the length of the course and then we’ll start with scent articles from humans,” Mills said. “Basically, a good example would be just take an article of clothing from like a kid or something and put it on a string, drag it on the ground up through the woods or something like that and then we’d get her the scent right out of the gate and she picks up the scent and then she trails it.”

Ash said bloodhounds are bred to follow scents.

“Part of Deputy Mills’ job is to get her socialized with everybody and then it’s a fun game for her. It becomes the game of hide and seek, basically,” Ash said.

With Daisy being donated, as opposed to the sheriff’s office buying a fully trained adult dog at an estimated cost of $10,000 to $15,000, they are starting from scratch. Ash said he and other officers met Daisy’s parents. Both had calm demeanors, and he is confident Daisy’s training will go well.

Students get chance to meet Daisy

Another aspect of Daisy’s socializing is visiting local schools. Mills took Daisy to Keating Elementary recently, and he has plenty of other requests to bring his wrinkly new colleague to classrooms.

“Everybody wants to see Deputy Daisy,” Ash said.

The sheriff’s office has applied for grants to help pay for Daisy’s training and the basic costs associated with having a trained dog available, such as veterinary check ups and, of course, food.

“I think she’s going to be a good asset and a good resource for the community,” Ash said.

The sheriff’s office had been discussing getting a K-9 for two years. They applied for the K-9 grant and, though they were not successful, they received an abundance of support.

Mills has talked with a handler from the Deschutes County Sheriff’s Office, which has a trained bloodhound.

Ash said that once Daisy is training, she will respond to Search and Rescue calls and criminal investigations where suspects are at large or have dropped evidence while fleeing the scene.

“After the last grant opportunity, I firmly believe that our communities will fully support the SAR K-9 program, which will provide one more resource for locating missing and lost people and assist deputies in criminal investigations,” Ash said in a press release.

“Everybody wants to see Deputy Daisy.”

— Baker County Sheriff Travis Ash