Sniffer Dog ‘Fired’ From Oregon Police Force For ‘Poor Performance’ And ‘Bad Temperament’

Failure to perform as per expectations and displaying an inappropriate temperament resulted in a sniffer dog getting fired from the police force.

A 2-year-old Belgian Malinois, who could have received the honor of joining the police force in the Oregon coastal town of Cannon Beach, was rejected by the authorities. The dog, named Cash, earlier belonged to Tami Schultz of Clatsop County Search and Rescue, and has been sent back to his owner without seeing even a single day of active duty.

Apparently, the dog had to perform amicably with the officers, while performing admirably on the field, but simply couldn’t, reported Gawker. As with any “performance report,” Cash was described as being uncharacteristically “skittish,” and had a “barking problem.” Moreover, the dog was highly afraid of heights and loud noises would scare him. Needless to say, such attributes are highly undesirable in a police dog, whose primary responsibility includes boldly venturing in areas where there might be loud noises, and he may have to scale walls to get into the compounds.

Apart from the aforementioned “poor qualities” that got the dog fired, Cash wasn’t too fond of jumping onto counters in search for drugs. Whenever his handler instructed Cash go up a counter-top, “he showed too much resistance,” as described on his performance evaluation report.

Additionally, Cash appeared scared of approaching drugs. Instead, he chose to merely bark incessantly, said Officer Josh Gregory, the dog’s former handler.

“Barking is fine as an alert, but you can’t get anything done when you’re trying to get him to find dope and he’s just barking in your face. That’s not the temperament we wanted to set for Cannon Beach.”

Apparently, the police department in Oregon is looking for a dog that is “ball-crazy, happy, wanting-to-work dog,” reported NBC News.

Gregory, who was supposed to spend two to three weeks training with the dog after taking it into his care, further added, “[We] basically learn how to dance together.”

Having raised $27,000 for the K-9 officer program earlier this year, the department had acquired Cash and tried to train him to be a drug-sniffing dog for four whole weeks before realizing he was just not cut out for the job.

“Where other dogs were progressing, he wasn’t progressing,” lamented Gregory.

While being able to perform admirably while on police duty is expected from a police officer, apparently, even stricter norms apply for canine units.

[Image Credit | Cannon Beach Police Department]