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Actually, it runs in two families in the Wabasha County Sheriff's Department.
Sheriff's deputy Jayson Lorenson, 25, has been the handler of a K-9 German shepherd named Kutter since it arrived in Wabasha in May. His father, Lyle Lorenson, is a major in the Goodhue County Sheriff's Department and an ex-K-9 handler.
Wabasha will get a second K-9 dog in about a month, and its handler will be Deputy Jason Bade, whose father was a K-9 officer for the Plainview Police Department.
Lorenson's dad helps him train the dog and acts as the bad guy, "the runner," and lets Kutter chew on his padded arm when he gets caught.
Jayson Lorenson has been training a lot lately, every day on his own time, before reporting to work. After getting married this weekend, he is going to load up his new wife, father and mother and Kutter and head to the Oct. 5
National Dog Trials Competition in New Jersey.
The elder Lorenson participated in many regional and national competitions as a K-9 officer, once finishing 5th in the nation in the early 1990s.
The young Lorenson and Kutter took 6th out of 51 dogs last week in a regional competition in Iowa. Kutter took 1st place in "article search" and "overall search." The other categories of competition are obedience, agility, criminal apprehension and gunfire apprehension.
"It was fun. Dad gives good pointers," Lorenson said. "He knows some of the tricks. We do a lot of training together."
Besides getting Kutter Police Canine Association certified, which can protect the department during lawsuits, Lorenson wants to go to the national competition in order to learn, he said.
Police dogs can cost anywhere from $4,000 to $10,000, Lorenson said. Wabasha County Sheriff Rodney Bartsh went out soliciting money to fund the department K-9 corps.
Ever since he was a little boy in Cannon Falls, Minn, Lorenson has known he wanted to be a police officer. By the time he got to high school, he knew he wanted to be a K-9 handler. Now his wish has come true.
Kutter has been holding up his end of the partnership. Since he arrived, he has participated in numerous narcotics searches discovering felony amounts of narcotics, Lorenson said. "And one good track of a burglary suspect here in Lake City in July. He actually tracked him to his house."
As for compatibility, Lorenson says, "He's one of my best friends. He wants to please. He'll do anything to please."
Contact reporter David Krotz at dkrotz@winonadailynews.com or call (507) 453-3524.
