New police dog and therapy dog coming in April
By Janelle Fisher
City Pages Editor
HOBART – Following K-9 Officer Bax’s recent retirement, the Hobart/Lawrence Police Department (HLPD) will add two dogs to its ranks this month — its next K-9 officer, Jax, and the department’s first therapy dog.
Jax spent some time in Hobart in December to bond with Hobart/Lawrence Officer Chris Tremel, who was Bax’s handler and will also be Jax’s handler.
Currently, Jax and Tremel are in New Mexico completing the training process and will return to the HLPD at the end of April.
But before Jax and Tremel return from training, HLPD will have another furry friend join its ranks.
At board meetings earlier this month, both the Hobart and Lawrence Village Boards approved a therapy dog program to be implemented in the HLPD.
The first dog of that program, an Australian labradoodle puppy donated by Blueberry Cottage Labradoodles, will be picked up by the department April 9.
Once the puppy is paired with its department handler — a position HLPD Chief Michael Renkas said has received significant interest — it will begin its training.
“Our imagination is going to be our limit,” he said. “Our initial, low-level goal as we really want to get them trained to what’s called Canine Good Citizen through the AKC (American Kennel Club). Start there and then kind of expand and build upon that so we’re able to use the animal for interviews with victims or witnesses of traumatic incidents and children, as well, involved in that. Bringing them into schools as well, using it as a de-escalation tool, using it for community engagement and using it for internal peer support. There’s a lot of different applications for a therapy dog like this and realistically, it’s going to be how much effort we put into it.”
Unlike the department’s other canine officer position, the therapy dog will come into the department as a puppy and do all of its training there.
“It’s very unique and different from Bax and Jax where they go to an assigned training,” Renkas said. “We can kind of create our own path with what we can do and accomplish based on the dog and the handler.”
One goal Renkas said the department has for the new therapy dog is for it to be able to improve community engagement.
“If I’m sitting at a booth and I want to talk about what the police department can do for citizens, what we have to offer, it’s really a good icebreaker where somebody may see the dog sitting next to us and make us more approachable to start that conversation about ‘what is this?’ And then, ‘what is the canine program? What else do we have?’” he said. “We can start building the relationship with others who may not have wanted to approach us if we were just standing there at any one of the community events that we have.”
Renkas said the therapy dog will play an important role in working towards one of his goals for the HLPD — extending care and courtesy to victims and witnesses.
“One of my main focuses is really geared towards victims and ensuring that we’re treating victims properly and with the respect in dignity that they deserve,” he said. “And what, in law enforcement, can we do to ensure that we are utilizing all of the resources that we have access to to ensure that we are providing that level of care? And as we talk about victims and witnesses, being more trauma-informed when we’re interacting with them.
“Traditional law enforcement oftentimes creates silos. Our job in law enforcement is to find the truth of the matter, of what had occurred, and make an arrest if applicable and then push it to the next part of the criminal justice system. Sometimes in that lens, there’s the ability to not be very trauma-informed as you’re interviewing people to find the truth.
“One of the principles of being trauma-informed is safety. Utilizing a therapy dog creates an environment where a victim or witness would feel more safe. And trustworthiness is another principle of being trauma-informed and there’s trustworthiness with bringing the animal in. What we’re talking about here is just more of a holistic approach to get everyone onto the same page to come to the final outcome without creating more trauma while we’re moving through the process.”
The benefits the new dog will bring to the department are not only external though, as Renkas said there are many ways the dog can help internally.
“It’ll really enhance our internal peer support efforts, having an animal that’s trained and can not only interact with officers daily, but also assist when we have critical incidents or other crisis responses,” he said. “An officer may need some downtime and the dog can come in and they can, as studies have shown, dogs just seem to do a lot for increasing positive moods and decreasing anxiety and blood pressure and such.”
Renkas said he also hopes the therapy dog will also be an important tool in encouraging conversations about mental health among the officers of the HLPD.
“It’s also going to improve our communication within the organization and the culture shift in law enforcement to talk about mental health issues,” he said. “Law enforcement seems to be kind of slow [to change], but it’s really starting to take hold for peer support and mental health among officers nationally… We’re going to be able to really increase our efforts and change the culture that we have, having this tool and building a peer support team and network here.”
Much like Bax, and now Jax, has been available to assist other departments in the area upon request, Renkas said Jax and the therapy dog will be able to lend a paw in other jurisdictions as needed.
“It’ll be the same thing as with Bax and Jax,” he said. “They’re utilized for narcotics sniffs and apprehension by request very frequently while they’re working and the same would go as well [with the therapy dog]. If there was an issue that would need our assistance, we’d be more than happy to allow our handler to go out there within reasonable grounds for whatever the situation is. We want to ensure this isn’t just Hobart and Lawrence victims and witnesses, but as much as we can help. I think everyone’s on the same team in law enforcement — we want to provide the same thing. If our usage of this canine can help somebody avoid or work through trauma, we want to make sure that we provide that as best we can.”