Sheriff Jimmy Thornton and Deputy Joshua Akers welcome Rocky to the team.

Sheriff Jimmy Thornton and Deputy Joshua Akers welcome Rocky to the team.

The Sampson County Sheriff’s Office gained a new K-9 officer named Rocky, who will be assigned to the Patrol Division within the Sheriff’s Office.

Rocky’s handler will be Deputy Joshua Akers. The yellow Labrador was trained by Ventosa Kennels in Scotland Neck.

The K-9’s main responsibilities will include human tracking, narcotics and evidence searches related to cases, and cadaver searches.

“Canines are useful tools that can go beyond human limitations due to their sense of smell,” Sheriff’s Capt. Eric Pope commented. “They are highly useful in locating evidence, they are extremely beneficial in locating persons who walk away from home and get lost, such as small children and persons with cognitive impairments.”

Rocky is 2 years old.

“Rocky cost approximately $10,000, which includes training and housing for the handler while in school,” Pope added. “Seized asset funding (money seized from illegal activity) was used to purchase Rocky.”

Ventosa Kennels is a police dog kennel providing police K-9 training for law enforcement and other working duties.

“We sell trained police dogs and we sell untrained or ‘green’ police dogs that have been screened, selection tested, and are ready to be trained,” Ventosa Kennels states on its website. “Our dogs are imported from working bloodlines in the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Germany, Holland, and Belgium. Ventosa Kennel’s police K-9 training programs are centered on the experience and past trainings of Tracy Bowling who provided K-9/handler training to the military and law enforcement. His experience, along with ongoing development of innovative training ideas, allows us to continue establishing new training benchmarks for police K-9 training in the us.”

According to Ventosa, it offers police K-9 training and certification, including patrol, narcotics detection, explosive detection, wildlife enforcement detection, and police tracking including bloodhound training.

“We have offered police canine training and police K-9 sales since 1968,” Ventosa’s website states. “Our goal is, and has always been, to train to the highest level attainable.”

Brendaly Vega Davis can be reached at 910-592-8137 ext. 2588.