'Rookie' search dog sniffed a missing girl's sneakers. 12 minutes later, he ran into a backyard and refused to budge
With just one piece of evidence, the K-9 officer tracked down the missing girl
A Colorado search dog reportedly solved a missing person's case within minutes — that, too, on his very first mission. When a 7-year-old girl went missing from Arapahoe County, Deputy John Gray trusted Rex, his K-9 partner, according to Fox21 News. Well, he only let the dog smell the girl’s sneakers, but that was enough for Rex, as he found the missing girl in just 12 minutes.
It had been almost two hours since the girl had separated from her mom and gone missing. Thankfully, right then, Rex came to the rescue, on his very first assignment with these "specialized skills." Deputy Gray made the K-9 dog sniff the missing girl's sneaker so he could recognize the precise "scent trackers" (the odor) he was looking for.
"He is one of the first dogs in the state to be trained the way he is because he’s kind of a triple threat. He’s a therapy dog. He’s also a full explosive detection canine, and then he’s also a trained tracking canine, so he can track missing people," Gray said, praising the search dog. Moreover, the officer explained that his K-9 partner can clarify two things: where the missing person went, and where they did not. Now, using that information, the team works to reach the person in question, "which in this case is what happened — he told us where she hadn’t gone and told us where she did and kind of directed us to a couple of backyards," Gray said.
Following Rex, the officers finally reached a location where they could spot the child and reunite her with her mom. Now, interestingly, all this happened in 12 minutes only. As seen in the Instagram video (@arapahoe_rex_sro), Rex pulled the officer straight to a hedge and refused to move. Curiously, the authorities searched the place thoroughly, only to find the little girl hiding.
Deputy Gray explained that it takes four months and a lot of training to prepare a canine to track down a missing person, but once they're trained, they save a lot of time and resources while helping the police departments and law enforcement agencies worldwide. Overwhelmed, the girl's mom insisted on giving Rex the pair of shoes to chew on, but unfortunately, Gray couldn't accept it. "I had a reminder that we can’t chew on things we’re not supposed to," he explained. This likely helps train K-9 officers to not accidentally chew on evidence.
There are nearly 50,000 active police K9s in the United States, according to a 2024 report. Now, as Deputy Gray said, these dogs undergo special training, and apart from tracking down missing people, also help seize drugs, alert officials about explosives, and discover forensic evidence at crime scenes.
Meanwhile, reacting to the wholesome story, @lulaalder8254 commented, "Hearing the fear in her voice and seeing the dog happily coming to the rescue and assuring her that she's safe, with the officer's empathetic voice, had me tearing up. I was lost as a 4-year-old on a vacation in Holland. All of the condos looked the same, of course, and I felt like my life was over. This relief is familiar and brings me such joy." Similarly, @publix19631963 shared, "This is why dogs are important in this world; this is why people that abused dogs need to go to jail for at least 5 to 10 years; the law needs to get tougher."
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