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player ready...When the time came to draft a new staffer to protect the DuPage County Courthouse in Wheaton, Sheriff John Zaruba sniffed up the right tree.
Zaruba has recruited Utah, a 2-year-old black male Labrador retriever trained to hunt down explosives. Utah and his handler, Deputy Ken Diebert, recently went to work at the courthouse but also go on special assignments throughout the metropolitan area.
Utah is learning the ropes from Astor, a German shepherd and courthouse veteran. Astor and his handler, Deputy George Foy, have been on duty at the courthouse for six years.
Utah and Astor, who also is an explosives detection expert, are among the six working police dogs available 24 hours a day, seven days a week to DuPage and any other law enforcement agencies in the metropolitan region.
Zaruba said Utah was obtained, at no cost, from the Federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms’ Canine Detection Center.
Utah and Diebert completed a 10-week training program at the ATC training center in Virginia.
“Having two dogs available in a county this size for bomb detection is simply the prudent thing to do,” said Zaruba, who added that the workload of the dogs has been steadily increasing and the addition of Utah help decrease the possibility of canine and handler fatigue.