Lakeville Police K-9 Shadow Set to Retire

One of Lakeville's two K-9s will be retiring later this year.

Shadow, who has spent six years on the force, will live a life of relative luxury as he spends his remaining years as a family pet—with some unique abilities—with the handler he's known since coming to Lakeville, Officer Chad Loeffler.

“The typical service life for patrol canines is six to seven years,” Lakeville Police Chief Tom Vonhof told Sun Thisweek. “What happens is they start experiencing health issues as they get older.”

It's not that Shadow is old in terms of dog years, necessarily, just too old to serve as a police K-9.

Typically, when a K-9 is retired, that dog stays with its handler, and a new officer is chosen to become a handler for the new dog-recruit. This was the case in 2010 when Officer Jason Jensen was teamed with Zeus.

But this time, Lakeville's Police Department is doing things a bit differently. According to Sun Thisweek, Loeffler will stay on as handler for the new dog, too, skipping the normal four or five month training handlers and dogs usually go through.

The reason: Instead of another German shepherd, like Shadow, the new member of the K-9 unit will be a breed of dog called Belgian Malinois. The dog, which could cost $10,000, will come with months of training already.

Shadow will remain on the job for a while yet, and the new dog will join the force around the same time he retires.