Bomb Dog Blues

May 20, 2016 — bomb squad professional, canine cops, cops, JR, Officer Cookie, retire, TPD

ready to rock

Officer McCusker

JR, bomb dog

the bomb squad

JR, bomb dog

the bomb squad

JR, bomb dog

I met Officer Rob McCusker ,who trains dogs to detect explosives at TPD, last November when he was training a new puppy.  I featured Officer Cookie in a post because she was so sweet and friendly to meet as a youngster.  When I saw Officer Rob yesterday I asked about Cookie.  She has moved to Anchorage Alaska to work for a private security firm.  It turned out that Cookie was doing well with her training until the time came to go outside.  It became apparent that she just did not have the right stuff to be a bomb squad professional.  I could tell listening to him tell the story that this had been a very heart wrenching experience for Officer Rob because their bond was very tight.  They put in many months of training.  Finally the breeder where she was born was consulted, and they decided together that there were no more training moves to be made to improve her skills.  She had to retire from her law enforcement career.

The great news is that she nabbed a job in Alaska in which she never needs to go outside.  She lives in a nice home up there and still has a place in the professional sniffing dogs universe.  Since she is a dog she may not really think of us any more, but we remember her fondly and thank her for her service.  The other fabulous piece of news is that JR, the bomb detecting dog who had retired at the McCusker family home at the age of 10, is back to work.  Nobody could be more delighted than JR.  He is extremely affectionate, and glad to be back at his job.  He does not mind one tiny bit filling in while a new recruit is trained in the thousands of scents they must learn to detect explosives. It is old hat to him, and he is the life of the party.  He is impressive in every way.  He gets a bath about every 10 days to make sure his own scent does not interfere with his missions.  He must be the cleanest black lab in the world.  He is shiny, healthy and happy.  It was a pleasure to meet him at thank a cop day, out of retirement having a wonderful time.  JR is the bomb.