It's In Their Blood: K-9 Puppies Destined To Find Lost People

PASCO COUNTY, FL — What’s more adorable than a bloodhound puppy? How about two bloodhound puppies?

Meet the newest additions to the Pasco County Sheriff's Office K-9 Unit, Hemi and Shelby.

Born in Kentucky, the 11-week-old puppies are littermates who will train together during the next 10 months and then work side by side as single-purpose tracking K-9s focused on locating people who have wandered away from home including children and adults with memory loss.

The Pasco County Sheriff's Office acquired the two bloodhounds, a breed famous for their remarkable sense of smell, because reports of missing people are the most frequent kind of calls the sheriff's office receives.

Hemi and Shelby will join Buster and Knox, both 5-year-old full-blooded bloodhounds certified by the National Police Bloodhound Association, who came on board due to the high number of missing persons calls the sheriff's office receives.

Both bloodhounds help locate lost children, missing hikers and people with Alzheimer's disease, dementia, Down syndrome and autism. They are often recruited by surrounding law enforcement agencies due to their expertise.

While many members of Pasco's K-9 unit are trained to track missing people or people attempting to evade deputies, bloodhounds have the unique ability to track people after significant time delays. They can also track people through creeks and swamps, and distinguish between scents to track a person in a crowd.

To ensure that the bloodhounds begin their search as quickly as possible, Sheriff Chris Nocco adopted the national SafetyNet Tracking System designed for people with disorders that make them prone to wander or get easily lost. The at-risk resident is swabbed with gauze, which is stored in a jar to preserve the person's odor. If that person becomes lost, Buster and Knox can sniff the gauze and track the person's scent.

It will be about a year before Hemi and Shelby are ready to work beside Buster and Knox. However, Bloodhound Man Trackers Inc., which trains many law enforcement bloodhounds, said bloodhounds can begin training at only 8 weeks old.

In addition to undergoing training, both puppies will have live with seasoned K-9s.

Hemi is partnered with Deputy Bobby Lewis and K-9 Maddie, the sheriff's office's first live find K-9, specially trained to locate people trapped in collapsed buildings or buried beneath rubble.

Shelby is partnered with Sgt. Brian Hernandez and narcotics detection K-9 Doc.

Like all members of the sheriff's K-9 unit, the funds for Hemi and Shelby were donated - this time by Ferman Chysler, Jeep, Dodge, Ram of New Port Richey.

See related stories:

• Sheriff's Corporal, Faithful K-9 Chris Hang Up Their Flak Jackets
• Sheriff Gets 1st 'Live Find' K-9 In Honor Of High School Student
• Video: Buster Helps Sheriff's Office Bust Accused Car Thieves