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SEARCHK-9 Scout, a 6-year-old German shepherd with the Jefferson County (NY) Sheriff's Office, died Thursday afternoon during a training exercise.
K-9 Scout died after a ball became lodged in his mouth. (Photo: ODMP.org)
Scout, a Jefferson County (NY) Sheriff's Office K-9, died Thursday afternoon during a training exercise.
The 6-year-old German shepherd; his handler, Deputy Adam Hallett; and eight other dog-and-handler teams were training for building searches in the city of Watertown, reports WWNY-TV .
During this particular training, the handler throws a ball into an area as a way of signaling what area the dog is supposed to search. The dog retrieves the ball after searching the area.
Scout was given his ball as a reward during the training, but it became lodged in his mouth and impaired his breathing, reports odmp.org .
He died at the Watertown Animal Hospital, where he was taken after the Heimlich maneuver, CPR, and mouth-to-nose resuscitation failed, according to WWNY-TV .
In a statement, Sheriff Colleen O'Neill said Scout's death "was an accident void of human error."
K-9 Scout had been with the sheriff's office since 2014 and was trained for explosive detection, handler protection, and tracking at the state police K-9 school in Cooperstown, NY.
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