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Eagle County Sheriff’s Dep. Rebecca Anderson and Echo the drug detection K9 she handles are both decked out in body armor. Echo’s was provided by a national organization and a local donor.
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Echo is a drug detection dog, the Eagle County Sheriff’s Office’s ninth, and the only one working currently.
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When Echo joined the Sheriff’s Office last year, Eagle County SheriffJames van Beek swore her in.
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Echo, the Eagle County Sheriff’s Office’s lone K-9, is both safer and resplendent thanks to a national organization and a local donor.
Echo is now wearing a bullet and stab protective vest from Vested Interest in K9s, Inc. The vest was sponsored by Agnes Harakal of Eagle and embroidered with the sentiment, “In memory of Deputy Inspector Joseph Cassidy NYPD.”
The vest costs between $1,744 and $2,283, and carries a five-year warranty. It weighs around 5 pounds. Because of Vested Interest’s other fundraising, it costs $960 to provide one protective vest for a law enforcement K-9.
Aptitude and attitude
Echo is a drug detection dog working with deputy Rebecca Anderson. Echo is the ninth K-9 to work with Eagle County Sheriff’s Office and is the only active K-9 currently.
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About any dog can be trained to do these things, but not every dog wants to be. Like much of modern life, drive and mindset matter more than gender, Anderson said.
Echo was hand-selected by a breeder in Germany because she showed an aptitude for law enforcement work.
Echo is not a bite dog, she’s a patrol dog. She’s trained to sniff out illegal narcotics, specifically: heroin, cocaine, methamphetamine, ecstasy, and psilocybin mushrooms.
She’s mellow when she’s not working. On the other hand, she loves her work and doesn’t want to stop, Anderson said.
Drug detection dogs do not go ballistic when they find something they’re supposed to find, and you’re not supposed to have. She sits or lies down and stares at the stuff. If she can reach it, she puts her nose on it, Anderson said.
Echo can also pick up human scent, Anderson said, so she can help find children or adults who might have wandered off.
About the only time Echo might be aggressive is when someone is aggressive with Anderson.