When they’re not nabbing criminals, they’re winning hearts

Ever since joining the Carroll County Sheriff’s Office less than a year ago, Rex and Ringo have been making a name for themselves, putting criminals behind bars — and winning the hearts of school children everywhere.

Rex is a 5-year-old Belgium Malinos acquired through a law enforcement adoption program.

Ringo is a 3-year-old Dutch Shepherd, born in Holland and purchased from a top-ranked kennel.

Both are K-9 officers trained to alert when narcotics are present, schooled in the art of tracking, handler protection and criminal apprehension, but passive enough to let children pet them.

Some 2,000 students, pre-school through fifth grade, have already met the dogs at demonstrations held at their schools.

“Since the inception of the K-9 unit, they have made 29 arrests and conducted 14 demonstrations at various schools in the county,” said Ringo’s handler, Cpl. Mike Zimmerman.

Both he and Deputy Justin Wagner, Rex’s handler, head up the K-9 unit, saying they love their jobs and they are solely responsible for their dogs.

“No one else works our dogs,” Zimmerman explained. “It’s a partner thing. I spend more time with Ringo than with my family.”

The dogs go home with them, he said, and are “part of the family, but not family pets.”

He is particularly proud of their recent national certification earned in Little Rock in October.

He said Rex and Ringo were required to find four “hides” in four rooms. “If you have one miss, you don’t get certified,” he said, “It was a pretty stressful test.”

Stressful, he explained, because the sheriff’s office doesn’t have heroine or cocaine on hand for training purposes.

“They were previously trained on those,” Zimmerman explained, “but it’s nice to have it — to throw out and know they’ll alert. We only have meth and marijuana here. We don’t have the luxury of heroine and cocaine for training purposes.”

Although Zimmerman said he sweated the outcome of the certification test, both dogs reverted back to their previous training and sniffed out the four “hides” with no problem.

Zimmerman said the K-9 unit is available to area law enforcement agencies 24/7, and the canine’s skills are often called upon.

He said his prediction that it would take about a year for all area personnel to learn procedure has proven true.

As an example, he said officers have learned that if they are involved in a foot pursuit and decide a tracking dog is needed, they stay off the trail.

Pictured are Deputy Justin Wagner with Rex, and Cpl. Mike Zimmerman with Ringo.

“Now, all our guys know what we need so the dogs can do their job,” he explained.

While Zimmerman has a history working with drug dogs, Wagner admits he is relatively new to the K-9 division.

He recalled his first “agency assist,” which involved a probation/parole officer on a home visit that resulted in an arrest for drug possession.

“It was my first time to deploy the dog,” Wagner remembered. “I was leery. But, you trust what you have and trust the dog.”

Wagner says he enjoys his work with Rex, who knows when they are about to go on duty.

“He stands at the door and whines. He’s ready to go to work. He sees my clothes going on, and to him, it’s that time to go out and have fun.”

“Working the K-9 unit couldn’t be more satisfying,” added Zimmerman. “I like finding drugs but I like tracking better. Nine times out of 10, at night, a suspect can get away — but not from the dogs. Ringo is a great dog to work with. Of all the dogs I’ve worked with, he’s Number One.”

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