Boonville Police Department welcomes new K9 dog

A new dog has joined the Boonville Police Department in a K9 capacity. Vik, a 19-month-old German Shepherd, will work with Sergeant Scott Wack in narcotics searches, tracking, and other capacities.

In February of this year, K9 Kilo was retired from service after turning 9 years old. Kilo will stay with Wack in retirement. Later that month, Wack and Chris Smith, a deputy and dog trainer with the Boone County Sheriff’s Department, went to Sharpsville, Pennsylvania to a well-known provider of police service dogs. After looking at 16 prospects, Wack and Smith chose Vik as the new K9 for the Boonville Police Department.

For a week, Smith worked with Vik in Pennsylvania to introduce the dog to the kinds of narcotics odors he would be trained to detect. After returning to Mid-Missouri, Smith and Wack started the eight-week process of training Vik on other procedures, including learning to work closely with Wack, as well as drug detection, tracking, building searches, obedience, and apprehension.

On April 22, Sgt. Wack and Vik passed the Missouri Police Canine Officers Association certification for narcotics detection, obedience, and aggression. That allowed the two to start working as a team on duty. On April 29, Wack and Vik passed the North American Police Work Dog Association certification for a police utility dog.

Sgt. Wack and Vik will continue training an average of two days a month under Deputy Smith’s direction.