Retiring Your Police K9 & Training Up A Replacement | SOURCE

I freeze up every time. Welcome to The Source Podcast, everyone. I'll be your guest today. It's Simon here at G1 Custom K9 Unlimited. Today I got a very special guest, someone that was instrumental in my infantile stages in the canine industry and a close friend of the podcast, I'd say close friend of the company, Adam Crenshaw. Why don't you introduce yourself again?

Again?

All right, recurring guest on the podcast.

Yeah, yeah. So, uh, Maybe this, maybe this one won't be as long as the, as the first one that I was on. But yeah, I'm Adam Crenshaw. I work for Commerce Police Department and also one of the founding, what would you call it? Founding members. Founding member of CCU.

Founding daddy.

Founding father. We'll go that route.

I like daddy.

Yeah. Yeah, one—

she's not cutting that.

One of the founding fathers, I guess you could say, of Custom K9. So it's good to be here, good to be talking with, uh, with you guys about, I guess, an experience that a lot of handlers are going to have to go through eventually if they haven't already.

Yep, absolutely. So reason Krent's here with us, he's here because he's getting ready to put a new dog in the service, so he's getting some training in. We've been working on detection, tracking, and some bite work this week, and then next week he's going to be going into certification. But with that being said, as we're turning a new tide, we also have a dog that we're going to be retiring, which is Max. Correct me if I'm wrong, your first K9 that you've worked with? Right.

I guess there was a little confusion on what I may or may not have had. And I remember I was going to deploy him on a vehicle sniff. And as soon as I pulled him out of the car and he jumped out of the car, I guess he thought I had a toy in my hand or something. And he just bit me. Just bit me. And I was just as surprised as he was whenever I looked down and he had tagged me on the hand. Not too bad. But I was like, what the heck was that, man? And he just had a startled look about himself as well. And I guess the only thing I can think of, he thought I had a toy, you know, and he bit my hand. And that was, that was probably— I wouldn't say it was our first vehicle sniff, but it was, it was one of, one of the first, I think. And I was like, man, I hope you're gonna do this every time I pull him out of the car, you know.

I mean, maybe he was Testing you out?

Maybe, maybe so. I don't know.

I got this new guy.

Yeah, I'm just gonna see what happens.

Yeah, let's fly by the seat of our pants. If it goes well, I'll keep doing it.

Yeah, I mean, maybe. But yeah, that, that was good. I'm telling you, the, the first successful track that we had, you know—

Didn't you lose your knees on that?

Well, I mean, there were several tracks I lost my knees, so I lost my knee today. Yeah, you did. Yeah, you did. You're getting old too, Simon.

Yeah.

No, it's, you know, finding dope's fun, but man, when you find a person, that's just, that's the most incredible feeling in the world. And I think probably our first successful track was, is something that, that I'll always remember. And it wasn't that it was even a long one. It was just the stupidity of, of the person that, uh, committed the crime. It was just a burglary at a convenience store, and we tracked for, I don't know, it wasn't very far at all. It was almost like a CERT track without all the turns, you know, maybe, yeah, straight line down the sidewalk, maybe quarter mile if that. Yeah, and yeah, some idiot in his pajamas just decided to steal some vapes and some lottery tickets, but no, Okay, but that was, that was a fun one. You know, uh, most of them I think would be my, my tracking, uh, the tracks that we've been on, because I mean, that's something that I enjoy doing with Max anyway, and Max enjoys doing tracks as well. So, um, every track, even, even if they were unsuccessful, you know, where somebody got picked up or whatever, we didn't find the guy at the end I think that those moments that I've had with Max has just been fun. He and I both love that tracking, so yeah.

I mean, I've said it before, I mean, it looks like just fun hanging out with Max. I mean, even when he comes boards at our kennels, he's just a dog that you look at him and you're like, man, he likes being a dog.

Yeah, yeah, he loves being a dog. He doesn't have a lot of chill about him though. You know, I wish that as I age that I still acted like I was when I was like, you know, a kid. Max is that, you know, he, he still acts like a young dog even though he's getting on up in age. I think I was telling you yesterday, I can't count the number of coffee mugs and potted plants and lamps that Max has broke in my house just because he doesn't walk anywhere. He runs everywhere he goes, you know, tight lines. Yeah, he's just, he just, you know, in the hardwoods in the, in the house, he slides everywhere. He's just destructive. And, um, but you know what, he broke, he broke my wife's favorite coffee mug, and that was— he, he got put on the boo-boo list for that one, I think. But man, he just, he's just a young dog at heart, just in an old dog's body, you know.

So Well, you know, I wouldn't get upset if you broke my favorite coffee mug with your dog, but that's another discussion we've been having.

There you go. Yeah, yeah.

But that being said, you mentioned him getting up in age. Tell me about that retirement process. Like, what does that look like from the handler perspective and the department perspective? Is it something that you kind of addressed or brought up, or was it decision that, you know, the department made? How did they process that?

Yeah, I think it was a joint decision, you know. Um, it's, it's too— it's something to be expected. I mean, Max is a, is a big shepherd, and, and we know, you know, heavy dogs. I mean, he's, you know, typically he runs about 87 pounds. He likes to fluctuate between, uh, 83 to 87 pounds. He's a, he's a, he's a big dog. I think the heaviest when I was on light duty, the heaviest he got was in the 90s. And, and, you know, with age and with being a bigger dog, you know, there's potential for, for issues and joints, hips and stuff like that. Jumping in and out of a patrol car for, you know, 9 years can definitely wear and tear on, on the dog. And I think when the initial conversation come up, you know, I think it helped too that that Max's, uh, previous handler is, was the, is a patrol lieutenant. So having that conversation was easier. It wasn't me just trying to get a new dog. He also knew that, you know, this, this dog that, that our department has used, you know, is, is going to wear out eventually. And the conversation that we had was, you know, basically I, I wanted to have a little bit of time to to be a dog instead of just being broken. And I think, you know, that's some departments, you know, they— most departments, really all departments, I would say, looks at that dog as a piece of equipment, which they are, you know. I mean, they're our only piece of equipment that has personality and that is living and breathing besides our human officers. But that piece of equipment It's not like a firearm. When it wears out, you just, you know, you can set it aside and let it collect dust. That dog has a life that continues to live. And so the conversation was, you know, I want Max to be a dog. You know, he's getting old, you know, and I don't want him to be broken and I've got to pick him up to take him outside to use the bathroom because he can't walk anymore. When he retires, you know. And I think that, that speaks to, you know, handlers' attachment to these dogs. You know, we— they're our partners. They're with us all the time, and we start to notice when that dog is lacking in something because of age or because of health decline or, you know, whatever. And we want them to be able to enjoy what they're doing.

So I mean, as far as I've seen, other than, you know, maybe with some bite work he gets tired a bit quicker, but I mean, you could still, if you wanted to, like, keep working him. Oh yeah, the main concern here is, hey, you want him to enjoy, and just, it's a good time to make a transition, right?

Right. Like I said, I mean, he, he's given, um, 9 years at least to, or maybe just a little over 9 years of his life to the department. Which for a dog is, is a long time, you know. And he's done good work for our community. He's done good work for our county. You know, I was, I was telling you that there for a while we were pretty much the only K-9 team in our county. And so he's been used and he's been used, used well, you know. So as a reward, I think, for, for his service, you know, let's, let's get him out where he can enjoy just being a dog, you know, because he hasn't— he hasn't really had that, you know.

He's—

yeah, he, he gets dropped off in a new country and, and he's been in a strict training regimen and he's being put to work and training, and, and he works just as hard, if not harder, than a lot of officers. And hey, let's, let's reward that with Well, let's let you sit at the house and get all fat and sassy every once in a while. You know what I mean? Like eat breads and soups. Yeah.

Move out to the mountains.

Yeah, go to Ella Jay. To a bed and breakfast. It's all good. Hang out with some dudes.

Yeah. Watching UFC fights, right?

Yeah.

But no, that's good. I mean, it's good to hear that. That that's what went into that decision. And he's not, you know, this old decrepit dog that just got ran through, or, you know, there was a medical thing.

So yeah, I, I'll add this too, uh, Simon. I, I've seen departments use a dog completely up, and it is— yes, and it's sad. I mean, I know people, some, some friends of mine, you know, that, that handle— I know one guy, I mean, I think his dog when he retired was 13 or 14 years old and was half blind and couldn't hear. Yeah, he would bite you now. I don't think he would find much dope, but he would sure enough tear you up. But I guess in defense of that, that dog lived to work, and so taking work away from that dog would probably put him down. The dog is no longer here, has since died, but when you're doing bite work and you can only get one bite in because he's not going to be able to walk the next day. Yeah, I mean, we can do a little bit better of a job taking care of these dogs, you know, since— especially since they've taken care of us.

Absolutely.

You know, we can, we can take care of them and, and, uh, let them have some, some comfort of life.

Yeah, it's never fun as a decoy catching a dog that's kind of you know, past his due date. Yeah, I want to call him spoiled, but yeah, yeah, when you, when you got to feed the dog the arm, they want to do it, they want to do it, but their body's just not letting them. But no, and you know, like I said, that's very comforting to hear that there are departments out there that are making those concise decisions and just really looking at it for the benefit of the dog.

Yeah, my department was very supportive very supportive from the chief down. They were all supportive and, you know, there are, you know, and I wouldn't put it in a box and say all departments or hardly any departments, but, you know, I can speak for at least my department. They see the value of the dog as a dog and instead of as just a piece of equipment. It was a very easy transition, I would say. From, from conversation to bringing it before City Council to getting approval of having a replacement dog come in and retiring Max. I, I feel like everybody was pretty much supportive in that process, so it made it easy.

Absolutely. So now with this retirement, there's obviously some emotions. Yeah. I mean, how did— how's How are you kind of processing it? How are you preparing yourself?

So, uh, I'll tell you, when we— while we were talking about it at the department, like, it was kind of still in discussion and, and all of this. And my lieutenant called me in the office one day when I was coming into work, called me in the office, and of course my first thought was, what have I done? But I didn't do anything. But he said, I mean, he just came out with it. And again, this is Max's previous handler. He just come out with it, was like, hey, we got approval, Max is going to retire. And I had to tell him, I was like, uh, LT, you, you, you could have walked me into that a little better. Like, because as soon as he said that, my heart almost dropped a little bit. Like, I wasn't expecting it. He just came out there with it and said, hey man, it's— we got approved. You know, we're gonna retire him. And, you know, it's easy when it's in discussion, but when you're faced with it, you're like, you're already missing working with that dog and he's still in the back of your car, you know. And, but yeah, like I said, it was like my heart dropped. And then when me and the lieutenant came out here to look at some dogs, he even said that, you know, after we were looking at some dogs and we were talking about, yeah, man, we really like this dog, whatever. As he was walking up the driveway, he said it hit him like a ton of bricks. He was like, wow, we're actually about to retire Max. And he said he got a little heartbroken, you know what I mean? And so, I mean, it hits a little different, you know. This is my first time going through this, and, you know, there's handlers that have worked a dog for 8, 9 years, the whole working life of the dog, and having to retire. I can't imagine what even how, even more so what, what it feels like to now this road is ending at this point in time. The season's over. I can't imagine that, you know. I've, like I said, I've had Max for around 3 years and, and it kind of hurt my feelings a little bit. Yeah, you know, that we're gonna retire him. Yeah, so, uh, yeah, there's definitely some emotion. I think, I think how I'm preparing for it is I know mentally that Max is going to have a good life for the rest of his life. He's going to have a family that loves him and takes care of him, and you know, he's going to get— he's going to get— shoot, we may even give him treats now, I don't know.

Some beef?

Yeah, some beef heart. I don't know, shave some beef heart out, you know. Here you go, Max. Um, but I mean, I know going into it that that just because he's retiring, he's not dead yet. So yeah, he's still going to be a good boy and he's still going to get to go out and play and, and all that. And then, you know, just kind of splitting my focus on preparing a new dog to hit the road helps a little bit. Yeah, you know, because I see the potential in this new dog and it excites me and I think one of the biggest warnings that I would give to handlers, even though this is my first time going through it, it's not my first time seeing it. And I think advice I would give to handlers who are about to go through it or who are going through it now is don't compare a new dog to your last one. Yeah, they're totally different.

Don't train them the same.

Yeah, yeah, they're totally different. Like, you know, I thought about it today while we were working obedience around decoy, I was thinking, wow, if I was working Max right now, I'd be fighting with him because he loves to bite. And I'm like, and Argus is just, he's just like, okay, oh, the decoy's out, okay, just tell me when and I'll go bite him. But if not, I'm cool being with you, Dad. Max wouldn't be like that. Yeah, right, right. He'd be wanting, he'd be wanting you, and I'd be getting, you know, blisters on my hands from all the corrections. But I mean, so it's, it's different. You just can't compare the two. And I really, I think that helps in transition, knowing that I don't have a right to compare this, this new dog to my last because they're completely different dogs. It's not fair for the dog that you're retiring, and it's not fair for your new dog, but it can be exciting.

So absolutely. And you brought up the new dog, and you brought up actually coming down and selecting that dog. Yeah, Max, you inherited it.

Yeah.

So, uh, with this new dog, you got to select them and pick something that you felt would match really well with you.

Yeah.

So going back through that process, I was here for that. Um, tell me about what kind of went into that decision as you were selecting them, kind of what you were looking for as well.

Yeah, so I think one of my things that, you know, I'm getting older too Max, like I've already—

we can't retire you.

Yeah, so like I explained, Max is a big dog, and in tracking, if there's something I got to pick him up, throw him over like a fence, you know, he's, he's heavy and he does not help when you pick him up. He just dangles there and waits, and he's like, toss me, you know. So coming into it, I'm like, I I want a smaller dog, you know, one that's, you know, gonna be a little bit easier to manage being thrown over obstacles or whatever. So, but, and I know it seems like, you know, just maybe just a small thing, but, but size mattered to me because having worked Max, who is a larger dog, and then, you know, we all know that I'm breaking down a little bit. So, um, looking for a dog that, that's smaller. Max is— he's social, but he's kind of like a cat, you know, touch me, okay, I'm done with you. Um, he can be a bully at times, so I wanted a dog that, that maybe had a little bit easier transition into coming home, even though we're, we're still in control of the dog at the house, but one that I feel like would transition into home life too well.

You got a family.

I've got a family.

So you took them into consideration?

Yeah, took my wife and my 3 children into consideration. You know, I mean, Max is cool with them, but Max, he really, he gets irritated with children. And looking at Argus and just seeing his demeanor while we were out there testing, you know, one of the things I looked at, I was like, And he could care less who's around. He's cool with everybody. And even though it's not a reason to trust him fully and just let him go around a bunch of kindergartners, you know, on a birthday trip, you know.

Better keep a pack of cupcakes in the car just in case.

Yeah, keep some cupcakes in there just in case, you know, you gotta hand some out. But knowing that, that he's at least easier maybe to control is good. But yeah, I think just going into it knowing what I loved about Max and what I didn't necessarily love about Max, I could kind of choose a dog that was best of both worlds. So I got lucky. I'll just say that I got lucky with Max, inheriting a dog like him. Was, was what I was lucky.

Absolutely, definitely. So with Argus, your new dog, there's gonna be some personality differences. You've already alluded to that. You've been working him for about a week, you kind of got a good feel for him, you guys are starting to understand each other. What are some difficulties you think you're gonna face with, you know, some of those personality personality differences? Well, you know, Max is a little bit more stubborn, right? Yeah, he's just— Argus is much like that?

No, and that's what's weird. Like, you know, Max, he would, he would try to get away with things and you'd have to be hard on him some. Um, Argus just doesn't seem like that kind of dog. Um, he's all about business when it's, when it's about work, but he can cut it off a little bit better, I think, than Max already. Yeah. You know, just for an example, you know, when I'm healing Max out to do some bite work, as soon as he keys on the decoy, oh man, like he is just rowdy. Yeah. You know, Argus, you know, like today, I mean, you were in the coat and I walked up and shook your hand, you know, and he's just like, okay.

Yeah, you know, well, to be fair, yeah, I gotta give some credit to my trainers. He wasn't like that before.

Oh, there you go.

So there was some work that got put in. He wasn't just naturally like, yo, yeah, screw this guy.

But maybe his true personality has been able to shine, you know, through and coupled with good training. Yeah, but, you know, trying to shake a decoy's hand with Max is It's gonna be fun. I can do it, but man, it takes a few times.

He's gonna shake too.

Yeah, he's gonna shake your hand too with his mouth, you know. But another big difference, and this is gonna really— it sounds weird, but it's gonna take me getting used to it. Max always let me know when someone was approaching my vehicle. It's one of the things I appreciated about Max and and loved about him is— and I would make jokes and say, Max, we're not going to be— we couldn't sneak up on a dead man because he's always looking out the window. Like, very rarely would Max just lay down in the kennel in the back of the car and chill out. He's always looking. And if I'm sitting there working on a report or doing something else and not really paying attention and somebody's walking up to my car, Max let me know because he would just come unglued, just barking and slobbering and all sorts of stuff. Uh, Argus is not like that. He, he's super chill.

Yeah. Um, well, let's give him some time.

We'll give him some time. We'll give him some time.

But, uh, he's still, he's still in that— Yeah.

Hey man, look, you know, sometimes it got on my nerves because like, um, if another officer pulls up next to me Uh, I couldn't have a conversation with him because I was like, I'd always have to say, hey man, hang on, let me step out of the car because I can't hear you. Yeah, you know, because Max is just losing his mind. Um, yesterday I had to go into the city and get gas and somebody walked up to my, to my car, um, that I work with and I said, what, what do you notice? And they immediately said, I don't hear barking. Is there a dog back there? Yeah, there's a dog back there, but you don't hear you don't hear a dog going ballistic. So that may take some getting used to. Um, but yeah, it's, it's going to be interesting for sure.

I mean, you know, just getting to work with your, uh, with Argus, your K9, and you know, just seeing you guys work. I think one of the coolest moments yesterday was— I thought it was an odd decision by you, especially since you were at one point my trainer and I watched you put your hand in the dog's mouth and he was like biting on it and I was like, what is he doing? But it was, it was cool because we were doing some building clearings and, uh, you know, he was just going ballistic. And then once you started giving your announcements and you got your hand out of his mouth, like, he just, he went quiet. He was looking at you.

Simon, I don't know why you brought that up. Not one of my finer moments. I don't even know what I was thinking. I, I know what I was— my intention was I was just going to close his snout with my hand.

I think you just didn't expect him to put his mouth on it and you were just like taken back by it.

Maybe. I don't know what I was thinking, to be honest. I would never have instructed anybody to do that, but here I am. Uh, oh, you're barking a lot, let me just, uh, close it for you. That's probably not the best I did. So, oh well, I digress.

You're getting to train with your new dog. Tell me about while you're training with this new dog, are there certain strengths that your last dog had maybe you weren't keen to until you started working with this dog, or something that's just kind of just, man, I really appreciated this about him?

I don't know. I, I think in detection, uh, when it comes to doing, you know, some dope work. He and Max are pretty much on the same level, or maybe not level, but they have the same kind of personality and drive when it comes to drug detection. Like Max, if I present high on a detail, if there's something there, Max just assumes that I want him to jump up there and start searching, and that's what he would do, you know. Big old dog, and he's still got a little bit of hops left in him, and he would jump up on something. Well, yesterday while we were in Gainesville training, I presented something up above a desk, and being a new dog, I was expecting him just to put his front paws on the desk and sniff. Nope, he just jumped up on top of the desk. And again, it's funny how you, how you go, man, that's just like Max. Or, man, that's— Max wouldn't have done it that way. But yeah, he jumped right up on top of that desk just like Max, and I was like, man, that's cool. That reminds me a lot of Max. But I would say, like, right now, one of the things that I really appreciated about Max was his commitment in tracking. And I assume with time, you know, Argus will get to a point where, you know, I'm confident and comfortable, um, running that track. But with, with Max, I mean, of course he's experienced, but man, there was just no question with him. Like, yeah, when he was tracking, he's, he's either on or he's off.

And I've laid some tracks for you, and I was like, even while I was doing it, I was like, man, I'm gonna throw you for a loop. Like, I would try and make sure you didn't find me. And you and Max were always on.

I'm telling you, Max is a tracking beast. And, you know, again, not comparing, uh, Argus with, with Max, you know, it just gives me more of a drive to, to target certain aspects of training. Yeah, not necessarily to get Argus to look just like Max in that, but, but at least Max in certain areas has established a standard for me. Yeah, that, that anything less than that I say we can go, we can go to Max. We can go to the Max, dude. Put that on a t-shirt. We're going to the Max. Taking it to the Max.

Maya, Maya.

Yeah, and put a picture of just Max's face on something.

Yeah, Maya, get the shirt press ready.

Yeah, that's a good one. That's a good one. That is a good one.

But you'd say, you know, with the new dog. I mean, there was areas you had to focus on with Max because not every dog's perfect. There's just certain areas that you gotta focus on with dogs and clean up. But you have new areas to focus on with this dog. Yeah, like you said, tracking you didn't have to worry about with Max. You didn't have to really push that aspect. But now looking at this dog, you know, not to say he's a bad tracker, it's just— yeah, you got to learn him. A lot of it is learning the dog, but we also got to really develop that aspect of that task, whereas with Max we didn't, right?

Yeah, so like another example, like with Max, one of the, one of the focal points was in his, like, let's say his patrol work was not frontal bites. I remember when you guys used him for a week on a decoy course, and he was very confused about a frontal bite. Yeah, um, Max didn't have very many of those. The opportunity that I have with Argus, you know, is we can work on things that, that maybe wasn't a target area for Max to, to better equip Argus early on to do a proficient job than trying to work on something with a 9, 10-year-old dog. Yeah, so that's, that's kind of a cool thing to look forward to is since I'm not inheriting Argus, I can train Argus for me. Yeah, and it's not like I have a dog that was trained for someone else and now I'm just trying to, you know, like again, you know, I, I rarely have I ever ran a dog on a harness tracking, but Max was running tracking on a harness his whole career. So I just, I stuck with it. Yeah, well, that's because that's how he was started out for—

that makes sense. That makes sense why you didn't tuck his hand.

Yeah, yeah, man, let me tell you, first you put—

you don't tuck the dog and then you put your hand in his mouth. Yeah, I'm like, what is going on with this?

Not to mention, not to mention, Max is in— he's in check commands. And, uh, I found myself yesterday I gave him a check command. That's going to take some getting used to. Like, I was like, dude, I hate training dogs in check.

Yeah.

And now I'm so used to it, uh, that, you know, Argus, he doesn't know what poost means. And I mean, you know, so that's another thing that I'm gonna have to get used to.

Yeah, absolutely. So going from a dog that you know, you got as a finished product. Now transitioning to this new dog, do you think you're going to spend a little more training time than you did? Or obviously you're going to have to extend those training periods.

Yeah, of course it was always easier when I was on night shift getting a quick track in, you know, self-laid, whatever, um, doing an article search, just doing something like that. But typically I would, I'd maybe run, run a track or two. You know, on shift, you know, when it got slow. Um, with, you know, there's things that I'm going to want to work on a little more. So while I'm at work and call volume goes down, I'm gonna want to seize those opportunities to work on things with, with him because he's still— even though he's, he's finished, he's not finished, you know what I'm saying? Like, when I take a dog, I, I don't ever Like even Max, I don't assume Max is finished. Yeah, you know, we always want to keep working on things. We always want to get that dog even better.

I mean, a dog's never truly finished.

Exactly. So, um, but I feel like there's more opportunity there for me to— we can not plateau it but go, all right, we're, we're 10/8, you know, we're, we're ready to rock and roll.

Yeah, so Absolutely. So originally when you selected the dog, his name wasn't Argus, and you went about and you told me you're like, I'm going to change his name.

Yeah.

Tell me about that name, why it has that special meaning and what it means to you.

So Argus's original name is Aries, and uh, Aries, Aries, whatever.

I hate Greek god names.

Greek god names.

Yeah, I mean, keep this in there, I hate Greek god names.

Yeah, I'm sorry, but if you're working a dog named Zeus, you need to change it. Come on, let's just be real. Lame. That's kind of lame. That does not reflect the opinion of CCU. It reflects the opinion of me and Simon.

People that matter.

Yeah, so, but now if you work a dog named Reba, I can get behind that. Oh yeah. Yeah, that's— yeah, shout out to Steven.

That lady had pipes. Yeah, she did.

Shout out to Stephens County. Good job, guys. They got a Reaper. You can keep that in there. No, you keep it in there.

He knows.

He knows. Yeah, wink wink, Brown. But yeah, so I chose Argus because, you know, that was a dog that I had had experience with. It was the first dog that I ever took I ever took a bite from. It was the first dog that I ever assisted in training with. That dog taught me so much. It was actually AJ's first dog. I love that dog. He was a great dog, and he, he, that dog was the one that kind of opened my eyes up to, you know, the, the canine world and made me appreciate what handlers do, made me appreciate the work that goes into a dog, and gave me, gave me insight to a career path that, that I was going to once choose. Starting CCU, now going into working a dog on the road of my own. And so really, you know, the name Argus is just a tribute to that dog because that dog was special to me. Spent a lot of hours training and working with Argus and taking bites from him. And, you know, a lot of, a lot of time went in, and that was the dog that really taught me a lot. And so again, it's just a tribute to, in my opinion, one of the greatest dogs that's ever worked the road. So that's where I got Argus from, and it's not because it's, you know, Sounds— it rhymes with Vargas. It just happens to be his dog, you know.

So that's, that's awesome, and it's, it's awesome to see, and I'm really happy to have been part of this transition and been part of this, the training into this K9 and working with you. You being someone that got me started into this, and I don't know, maybe I'll name a dog Kren one day.

That's kind of what I'm thinking. Hey man, if you want.

I mean, ultimately, if we're being honest, every time you do come to campus or whenever you've been on campus, there's not a lot of dog training going around. Like, we're just cracking jokes.

We do crack a lot of jokes.

But no, that's awesome to hear. And, you know, we still got a lot of work to do with them. You're going to be going into certification next week. And it's awesome, especially today with the owl. Like, you got that figured out and it's awesome watching things click. Yeah. But that being said, you know, the full transition isn't complete yet, right? You've got into it, into the thick of things. It's, it's almost setting in. Um, for those handlers out there that are going to be going through this transition, You gave them some advice, but what's the biggest piece of advice you can give from just this experience that you've had so far?

Well, I would, I would definitely say, you know, it's okay to feel something. It's okay to, like, like I said, it kind of hurt my heart a little bit when, whenever we were given the thumbs up for retirement. It's okay to be a little sad about retiring your partner. I mean, it's definitely It's definitely going to be a change for those retiring dogs where your dog is watching you get ready for work and they're not coming. That sucks. I think about that even now that, you know, Max gets excited whenever I'm in my uniform and he's expecting to go outside, take his break, walk around with a stick for a few minutes, and go jump in the back of a patrol car. Yeah, I would say it's okay that it kind of sucks. It's not okay to not get out of that, you know, to not appreciate the new opportunity that you're being given if you're going to work a second dog or a third dog or a fourth dog, whatever, because now you have a new opportunity. You've got your experience from your first dog that gets to be carried over to your, to your next dog, that can be very beneficial to the training and the productivity of that dog. So carrying over what you've learned, what your first dog has taught you, carrying that over to your second dog and appreciating the process is definitely something that is important. I would just say, you know, if you're about to retire your partner or you're going through that right now or about to go through it, there's really no way to prepare for it. Like I said, I wasn't prepared. Even talking through it and knowing it was coming eventually, I almost was not ready to hear the words, we got approval, he's going to retire, and Max is going to retire next week. Week. So I'm sure that if you ask me next week the same couple questions, I may have something new to add because it hasn't happened yet. But right now Max is sitting in his bedroom waiting on me to get home and, uh, wondering when he's gonna get in the patrol car and go to work. Yeah, and he's not, you know, so it's, it's kind of sad. Yeah, it's kind of sad. And Max, I know Max knows that I'm cheating on him because—

I was going to ask that too. Does it kind of feel like cheating?

No, he definitely does. Whenever I come home and I go in his room and I'm like, hey buddy, first thing he does is start smelling my pants where he's smelling the other dog. And the disappointed look on his face is just— it's terrible, man. He's like, you've been with him again, haven't you? Yes, Max, I have. Now let's go potty. But yeah, I would think maybe my advice would get better after this process, after this chapter is closed. But going into it, I know that I'm excited for two reasons. I'm excited that Max is going to get to retire and be taken care of at our home. Enjoy life, enjoy being a dog, and then I'm also secondly excited about the new opportunities I have with Argus and getting to train Argus up. And in some ways, I'm always going to be reminded of Max when I work Argus, even when Max is dead and gone. There's things that Argus is going to do that is going to bring back a memory of Max, and I'm going to go, Oh man, that looked just like Max, or oh man, I wish I had Max, you know. So yeah, I know that I'm always going to be reminded of Max, uh, with, with Argus around.

So absolutely. Well, thank you, Max, for serving your community.

Your—

what was it, 9 years of service? That's a long time. So yeah, gotta get a lot of good work out of them. I'm sure y'all had a lot of good memories. But Crenn, thank you. Thank you for joining us. I always say anytime you speak, my ears turn into a journal and they open up.

So that was probably the dumbest thing you've ever said.

Well, that being said, you know, our time has ended. I think this would be a good time to kind of shoot our t-shirt idea while we got the mic.

Yeah, yeah, mic time. Um, again, If you would like to order a Take It to the Max t-shirt with a picture of my dog Max's face on it, please email CCU and let them know of your interest in, in my t-shirt idea. In fact, all the proceeds will go to CCU.

Check out our short sets on Tuesdays. All the links are in the description, so take a look at that and we'll see you next Next week.