MADERA COUNTY — Sheriff Jay Varney is very pleased to welcome the two newest additions to the Madera County Sheriff’s Office.
“Nacho” is a one-and-a-half year old Belgian Malinois and “Gastone” is a two-year-old Belgian Malinois. Both dogs were imported from France.
Deputy Logan Majeski will be Nacho’s handler and Deputy Eric Jackson will be Gastone’s handler. All four just completed a rigorous six week training and certification course for their new assignment.
This training included area searches, building searches, obedience, suspect apprehension, and handler protection. The teams are also able to conduct article searches and tracking missions.
The Sheriff’s Office was able to purchase these K9s and fund the associated equipment and training as a result of numerous donations from the community.
These are the first two K9s to be deployed. There are plans to purchase two more so that there can be one K9 assigned to each patrol shift, one in the mountains and one in the Valley.
“We appreciate the generous community donations that made the purchase, training and outfitting of these K9 teams possible,” stated Sheriff Jay Varney, who notes with a wry smile, “It is ‘Nacho’ best option to flee from these excellent patrol and detection dogs.”