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Bringing the Children Home!

It's so dark outside now.  I'm cold and tired and scared.  Mostly scared.   I think I'm lost, but I don't know all those people hollering my name,  so I'll stay hid.  Mama said not to talk to strangers, and never to go with them.  This hiding place is dark and creepy, but it's a really good hiding place, they'll never find me here.  I'll bet Mama and Daddy are so mad with me.  I shouldn't have run away.  But I was so mad!  Now, I'm just scared and tired and hungry.  Boy am I hungry.  Uh oh, what's that??  No, can't let them find me!  Oh wait... look at the big funny dog!!  Aww... he's licking me!!  He found me!

Our Story - Next month on July 12th we will be conducting a fundraiser for the Houston County Sheriff's Department K-9 program and 832 K-9 Deputy Dogs. We have had overwhelming support and offerings of help to conduct this event. We are forever grateful to those that are helping.  I would like to thank the administrator and moderators of  WiregrassLive.com for allowing us to share our story.

About 14 years ago I was sitting watching a program on TV about bloodhounds in service chasing down bad guys and finding lost children. I thought to myself how interesting and rewarding it would be to be involved with search and rescue.  I had absolutely no idea what I was doing.  Well, I went out and bought a couple bloodhounds.

I made the mistake that so many well intentioned people do.  I had no idea how to train any trailing or tracking dogs and wound up having two really neat yard dogs.  But, I never knew what the future held and what seed I had planted though.

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  Fast forward about 11 years. Much to my amazement, my career college son (Leonidas) decided to pursue a career in law enforcement. Which I may add had nothing to do with the degree I had been paying for several years.  I have a saying, when something really successful happens, the stars lined up right that night. This is what happened in this case.

Along comes this newly graduated academy deputy and a newly elected HCSO Sheriff.

Sheriff Andy Hughes. I cannot say enough good things about the man. And all the personnel associated with this department. What a quality and professionally ran department. He was not afraid to take a chance on an idea with this new deputy.   So David Jr. approaches the Sheriff and proposes a bloodhound program. I want to give many thanks to the Sheriff and Houston County Commission for supporting this program. Really, the rest is history. The dogs have trailed a murderer, missing seniors and a variety of other criminals in Houston County with great success.

832 K-9 Deputy Dogs - What a great organization. Their motto is ‘Bringing the children home'. This is their first priority and what they live for. To date, I believe the dogs have found 27 missing children, many missing adults and thousands of criminals. This organization was started By Duke and Angie Snodgrass after the death of their son, a Deputy Sheriff tragically killed in an accident. It's a very interesting and touching story. Rather than explaining it all I'm providing a link to their web site for those interested in reading it. http://www.deputydogs.org/

832 just had their 100^th dog gifting celebration. 832 have gifted dogs to departments all across the United States. They also have dogs in Switzerland and Portugal.

  This is how our relationship started. Every year 832 has a training seminar for deputies across the US. David signed up for it as he has with others in South Carolina and New York. He's a sponge for information on man trailing.  It takes a special person to handle bloodhounds. Not everyone wants to chase criminals through snake infested woods and find the guy that may be hiding with a weapon aimed at you. Handling them is a daily chore and training on a continuous basis. Anyway, I take special pride in the fact that Duke spoke to me personally and described how much David and his late son look alike, act alike and have the same passion and determination for the dogs. 

  Great things are happening with 832 K-9. They now train with the FBI out of Quantico. The FBI has just contracted to purchase all their dogs from 832. 832 is putting together a triage team that can be deployed anywhere in the United States at moments notice. I am proud to say that David has been selected for this team. Now here is the great news. Our Houston County program has been selected to be the first chapter outside the state of Florida. We are now known as 832 K-9 Alabama. We are registering with the AG's office as a 501c3 non profit organization.

  But simply put, 832 is the most respected and productive bloodhound man trailing organization in the United States and most possibly the world. And we are so proud that the people of Houston County and the people of the Wiregrass can be a part of it. With all our efforts, we can help ‘bring the children home'.

832 K-9 Alabama - Currently four families in the wiregrass are fostering 832 puppies. Think you can guess who one of them is? No other organization takes this approach to bloodhound training. But this is one of the key ingredients to developing a successful working dog. Loving, socializing and developing a confident dog that is not afraid to go out into the world and use it's god given abilities.  The people that foster these dogs are truly special people. Bringing the animal into your home, making it a part of your family and then having to give it back is truly a difficult thing to do. Duke told me about the foster return days. They are very tearful yet happy days. He said that when they don't cry is when you have to worry about it.  But the true reward is that time that you receive the call that your dog just saved a life or found a missing child.

    832 Alabama is doing great things and greater things are in the future. We are currently assisting the Fort Rucker SERE School in escape and evasion training for their aircrews.

This training was coordinated and supported by Sheriff Hughes. We kind of think that we'll be hearing from other branches of service SERE schools to set up training for them. We will be hosting training seminars. All kinds of neat stuff for the future.

Paying it forward - Our very first dog was Junior. A bloodhound that was given to us by the North Florida Correctional Facility. Junior jump started our program with the Sheriffs Department. He won the hearts of everyone in the area. It seemed that every kid in Houston County knew and loved Junior. Unfortunately Junior was hit by a car and killed last year. That taught us a lot about kennel security. This happened just two days before David was to attend training in South Carolina.

  When Duke heard of this, he immediately went and picked up Jessie James and drove to South Carolina to meet David and immediately gifted Jessie to Houston County. The cost of breeding, training and caring for a bloodhound from beginning to end is about $15,000. 832 K-9 struggles for donations and resources to keep the program alive. So when a dog is gifted, one of the conditions is that the department conducts a fundraiser with a goal of $5,000. This is to pay it forward for the next bloodhound gifted. Someone paid for Jessie James for the benefit of Houston County. Now it's our turn to pay it forward.

The fundraiser - It's going to be really exciting. Rocky and Lisa Mcilwain, owners of Fun Zone is going to host it.  We have so many exciting ideas coming in. We do know we will be asking local veterinarians to come and provide information and promote their clinics. There will be child fingerprinting and scent kits and even a child self defense class on abduction prevention. And many more things.

David Asbill Sr.

dasbillsr@yahoo.com