The Thurston County Sheriff's Office has a Canine Unit consisting of four K9 Deputies partnered with four German Shepherd and Malinois dogs. The four canine teams are all assigned to the Thurston County Sheriff's Office Patrol Division and all are assigned routine and general patrol functions; including answering general calls for service, but also have the capability and responsibility to deploy to any scene in which those teams are needed. Our canine teams are all single discipline dogs trained in the tracking of human odor, finding discarded evidence or property, searching buildings and confined areas, as well as handler/deputy protection work. So when criminals run from our Deputies and Officers from surrounding police agencies within Thurston County, our Canine Teams are called and respond to locate the fleeing or hiding criminals. They do this by using their noses to smell a distinct odor of the person they are trying to find. All of us lose thousands of skin particles every second and the odor those particles emit are just as unique to a particular person as a fingerprint or DNA. Our German Shepherds detect that unique odor of a human being, and will track that person based on that unique smell to wherever that person flees. Our Canine Unit prides itself on being a “no cost program” to Thurston County and the tax payers, with the exception of the handler's salaries and their vehicles. Our handlers seek donations to make this program run completely on those donations in order to cover all of the costs associated with the canine programs and the care of our animals in these lean financial times. In this day and age of shrinking budgets, cost reduction and employee layoffs (including deputies), our canine handlers have solicited and raised donations to pay for all the costs associated with our program; to include equipment costs, training costs, upkeep and food for our canines. In fact, in these times where we are laying off deputies; if it were not for the donations of our public and local businesses, we would not have a canine program, as it would be one of the programs that would end up being cut in order to keep from losing more Patrol Deputies. Our canine units participate in several public education and demonstration events throughout the year and we all look forward to seeing you out there and introducing you to our teams. If you are interested in having a Canine Handler and their canine come to your event for a demonstration, please contact us. We appreciate any and all donations, including equipment. If you or your business is interested in donating to the Thurston County Canine Program, please call the Thurston County Sheriff's Office Canine Unit at (360) 786-5851 or donate using Paypal by clicking on the link provided on this page. Your donations are tax deductible as we are a 501(c)(3) through the Thurston County Deputy Sheriff's Foundation. You will receive a tax receipt upon your request for any monetary and/or equipment donations.
