Wolf Den Meets Paxo

This past Sunday, October 11th, the boys of Pack 1910 Wolf Den 1 were able to take part in a one of a kind experience while working on their Wolf requirements.

They got the pleasure to meet Officer Chris Jones of the K9 Unit of the Fort Worth Police Department and his sidekick, a Sable German Shepard by the name of Paxo. His name is Germanic for “Silent Warrior” and he boasts over 200 arrests in just the past year, not to mention he is just three years old! Paxo hails from the Czech Republic and his handler, Officer Jones, speaks to him in German since that is how Paxo was raised and it causes less confusion with the English language when training or in a confrontation.

Officer Jones let us know that training these dogs to hunt for contraband is a lot like hiding their favorite toy. In fact, Paxo has one toy, a blue Kong that he is wild over. This toy is used as reward for finding the scent they give him and he notifies the handler of the exact location by either sitting or clawing at the site where he has picked up the scent.

The boys got to see Paxo in action as he demoed is superior sense of smell. Officer Jones hid a container of cotton balls with one of the scents he is trained to find in the backyard then brought Paxo back to look for it. Took him less than a few seconds! They even got to play a game of tug-o-war with Paxo using a bite vest…Paxo won of course! Afterwards they all got a chance to rub his belly and take lots of pictures.

We asked a ton of questions and we learned a lot. One thing that stood out is that while there are only ten dogs in the K9 unit for Fort Worth, none of these heroes get to wear any protection when in the field. A specialized bullet proof vest for the K9 unit can cost upwards of $2k EACH and they just do not have the additional resources.

If you would like to help in any way please visit www.policek9supportfortworth.org and find out more.

We wish all the best to Officer Jones and Paxo!