Who:
Pinellas County Sheriff's Office
Patrol Operations Bureau
-K-9 Unit

Graduates:
Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office – Deputy William Wiltse – K-9 “Blaze”
Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office – Corporal Michael Kilian – K-9 “Reggie”
New Port Richey Police Department – Officer Brian Golembeski – K-9 “Charlie K.”
Largo Police Department – Officer Patrick Vann – K-9 “Chase”
Clearwater Police Department – Officer Jesse Myers – K-9 “Axe”

Instructor: Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office – Deputy Anthony Lorusso

What:
Five K-9’s and their new partners have completed four months of training and will soon be called for duty.  

Where:
The K-9’s and their partners trained for four months at the Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office K-9 Compound located at 3410 118^th Avenue in Pinellas Park.

When:
The training was held from March 23, 2015 to July 9, 2015.

How/Why:
Five K-9’s will soon be hitting the streets on all fours with their partners. The two newest members of the Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office and three of their friends recently graduated and are ready to take calls and track bad guys.

K-9 teams from the Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office, New Port Richey Police Department, Largo Police Department and Clearwater Police Department were recognized with certificates of completion during a graduation ceremony on Tuesday, July 7, 2015. Their final day of training wrapped up on Thursday, July 9, 2015.

Throughout their four month training the K-9’s learn obedience commands, bite work, search work to include area and building searches, tracking and human odor response.

After being on the road and patrolling the streets with their partners, some K-9’s will be given the opportunity to continue their training in narcotic and explosive detection.

Photos of the newest K-9 graduations can be viewed on the Sheriff’s Office Facebook page: http://tinyurl.com/ntwqtpt