The Morton County Sheriff’s Office is adding a therapy K9 to their force. The dog is being donated by Montana Goldendoodles and Labradoodles, and in collaboration with local businesses, will be trained and certified as a therapy dog. Deputy David Tomlinson is Morton County Sheriff’s Office Student Resource Officer and will be the therapy K9’s handler.
"We're going to be using it in our county schools. In my experience as a school resource officer, I deal a lot with kids that are suffering with anxiety, stress, or they are victims of trauma. A lot of research and science has shown that when people are dealing with this, not just children but adults in general, when your anxiety and stress levels are up in your body and this therapy dog is brought in, basically, your happy endorphins go through the roof and your anxiety and stress go down. "
The dog will be used for victim advocacy in cases when victims have to testify in court and will also be deployed to fatal accidents and other traumatic incidents where it can comfort victims and first responders.
"This dog will be a member of the sheriff's office, but we want the communities' involvement and engagement with it. So when we bring it out to community events, we want people to think that this dog is basically for them. If we are out and about and you see us and you want to pet the dog and give it some love, or recieve some love from the dog, that's really what we want. And, again, that is just building a relationship with our sheriff's office and our community. "
The goldendoodle will be the first certified law enforcement therapy canine in a sheriff’s office in North Dakota once it arrives in July to begin its training.