Published: August 30, 2009 08:57 pm      

Conservation officer retires a partner

After 10 years, K-9 G.W. gets to relax.

After 10 years in service, Indiana Conservation K-9 Officer “Game Warden” has retired.

Better known as G.W., the tracking dog’s name is actually Sir Izaak Walton, G.W.

His handler, Cass County conservation officer Brenda Louthain, explained that the dog was originally donated to the Indiana Department of Natural Resources by the Izaak Walton League.

Louthain said the decision for G.W. to retire was ultimately hers.

“They pretty much leave it up to the handler and the chief handler,” she said. “We know when it is time to retire even if he still wants to do the job, but he physically can’t.”

Louthain decided to retire G.W. due to his age and medical condition. She said his career was cut short due to injuries sustained while searching for a murder weapon in Kokomo. He was hit by a truck after locating the slide to a semi-automatic weapon and suffered a break in his hip joint, which led to severe arthritis.

Although the partners were assigned to Cass County, Louthain and G.W. answered calls in several jurisdictions, including Warren, White, Carroll, Newton, Tippecanoe, Kosciusko, Miami, Wabash, Howard, Blackford and Jay counties.

Cass County K-9 handler Sgt. Pat Zeider said G.W. was a good tracking dog and was beneficial to the sheriff’s department.

“Especially on a hot, humid day, it’s good to have a second dog,” he explained. “They wear down quickly.”

G.W. was also used by the sheriff’s department to locate weapons, since that was something Zeider’s dog was not trained to do.

During his career, G.W. located numerous criminals and also the bodies of two missing persons, including a missing Cass County man who had a heart attack while hunting in Galveston and a drowning victim in Warren County.

The search for evidence also kept G.W. busy. He found numerous firearms, countless spent ammunition and even two gun silencers, Louthain said.

Louthain had a difficult time trying to narrow down the biggest highlight of G.W.’s career.

“I just can’t say,” she said. “There were a lot of important cases he worked, tracks he ran and ammunition and firearms he found from homicide and suicide cases.”

She believed the most important case G.W. helped with in Cass County was that of Stephanie Wagner, a teen murdered on Halloween night 2006.

Matt Tholen, DNR conservation officer and public information officer, said G.W. will be a great loss to the department, especially during hunting season. Every time Tholen needed to utilize his services, G.W. always did a good job.

Making the decision to retire a K-9 partner can be a challenge.

Zeider said while it is a hard thing to do, the handler knows the K-9 is getting older and can’t physically do what they need to do. He said it can be even more difficult when the handler gets a new dog and has to adjust to the different personality.

Seeing her dog retire was difficult, said Louthain.

“It was a really tough decision, I tell you,” she said. “I knew the time was coming and that’s why I acquired another dog.”

Louthain found “Izaay,” a seven-month-old female yellow Labrador retriever, who she hopes will be able to step into G.W.’s role. Her newest partner was also purchased by the Cass County Izaak Walton League and donated to the DNR’s Natural Resource Protection K-9 Team.

Izaay will begin her training in February 2010 with three other officers. Louthain plans on starting one-on-one training with “puppy tracks” in three months.

For now, G.W. is at home with Louthain.

“He’s kicking it back and taking it easy,” she said. “Every once and a while I’ll take him out for a swim.”

Denise Massie is a staff writer at the Pharos-Tribune. She can be reached at (574) 732-5151 or denise.massie@pharostribune.com