Training a police dog takes a lot of time, effort and money. The dogs have to be able to do a lot of different tasks, from sniffing out drugs to finding a missing person. Photos courtesy of Cook County Sheriff’s Office
Jim Boyd
Meet Eddy, the canine member of the team at the Cook County Sheriff ’s Office. With his human partner, Deputy Paul Spry, Eddy works to keep us safe day and night, whenever and wherever he is needed.
Eddy has trained hard, and continues to train hard, in skills such as sniffing out narcotics, finding lost people, searching buildings, tracking and a number of other tasks that he can do and humans cannot. Just his presence can help defuse difficult situations, and he can be a wonderful comfort to a distressed child.
Keeping Eddy fit, healthy and well trained is expensive, and Sheriff Pat Eliasen would like to pay as much of that expense as he can with donations rather than tax dollars. The Chamber Foundation, a 501c3 charity, has agreed to serve as the collector of those donations.
Eddy’s most immediate need is for an agility course to keep him fit and his skills honed to a high level. A course that meets U.S. Police Canine Association standards includes such items as hurdles, a crawl, catwalk, broad jump, A-frame and other items. Chris Rauzi, ISD 166 industrial arts teacher, and his students have volunteered to make many of the items, bringing the estimated cost to $5,000 instead of $15,000 or more.
A handsome dog, and doesn’t he know it, Eddie is also a great comfort to children caught in a difficult situation.
So the first goal of this ongoing fundraising effort is to secure the donations necessary to get the agility course built. Every donation is tax deductible. Please give generously to help keep Eddy working for all of us.
To help, you can donate through Facebook by going to: www.facebook.com/donate/20440263790 24493/2091614037726027/
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