New “Jail Dog” Brightens Lives of Officers and Prisoners Alike; Successful K9 Lisko Marks His Second Birthday at Chino Valley PD

By Heidi Dahms Foster

The Yavapai County Jail in Camp Verde has a gentle new face around the place, unless, of course, you’re hiding illegal drugs.

This past March, the Yavapai County Sheriff’s Office was able to bring K9 Jet, a female chocolate lab, onto the force.

“The jail has been looking to get a K9 program in place for some time to help combat the smuggling of drugs into the jail, to search cells for drugs, and to help screen people coming in to make sure they are not bringing drugs in,” said Eric Lopez, YCSO K9 Sergeant.

The two-year-old Jet, “a real sweetheart,” according to Lopez, has turned out to be a “pretty good dog.” From Waddell Kennels in Arizona, Jet is trained for narcotics detection, and as part of her training, she can detect the deadly drug Fetanyl.

Because of Covid-19, Jet’s training progress has been a bit slower, but she’s coming along with in-house training, and should be ready to certify in early September, Lopez said. She goes to the jail each day with her handler, Eric Medina, so when she’s certified she’ll be able to go right to work.

Jet has been assigned full time to the jail with Medina. Lopez said her presence alone has already been a deterrent to drug activity. The team meets with the other YCSO K9s several times a week to train.

Jet is an extremely social dog, Lopez said. “We don’t have to worry about accidental bites or anything negative,” he said. “She’s a very loving dog, not aggressive, but still with tons of energy.”

One of the best effects of Jet being in the jail is her ability to be a bit of a bridge between prisoners and detention officers. “It’s a common interest, just in general, people love dogs and want to talk about them. Just because they are in jail, doesn’t mean they don’t want to talk about their dog,” Lopez said.

While she’ll be a deterrent to drug activity in the Yavapai County Jail, it’s sure bet that Jet also will bring a lot of joy to many of the staff and the people she’ll meet every day. 

K9 Lisko Celebrates Two-Year Birthday at Chino PD

Chino Valley Police Officer Dave McNally has been running solo with his two-year-old K9 Lisko since the department’s other K9 Jax retired this past year with his handler Tiffany Farmer, who has since moved on to another department.

Lisko came on board at Chino Valley as a 10-month-old puppy, so McNally had a long road to help him grow up and learn his job. He was a huge and extremely energetic bundle of Belgian Malinois. McNally said then he may top out at 90 lbs., and it looks like he’s headed that way.

“He was a little younger than I would have liked when got him, but it was just the availability. He is such a smart dog, really sharp and obviously high energy. He works so hard, and he was certified in narcotics detection before he was a year old,” McNally said.

Since then, Lisko has been re-certified in both patrol and narcotics, and aced both tests. He’s grown into a big, handsome dog that has done a good job for the Chino Department.

“With one dog, we haven’t been participating in the big interdiction details on the interstates, but he’s made several arrests here on the meth and low-level street deals,” McNally said. “He’s doing really well with patrol. He’s had yard-to-yard searches after home invasion suspects, and we’ve used him to clear commercial buildings when the alarms have gone off.”

While Lisko’s drug finds are not the interstate “cartel sized loads,” that doesn’t bother McNally. “I remember Lisko’s first find. It was a gram and a half of meth. The same day the county got a 15 lb. headline grabber, and I thought, no one is going to hear about Lisko’s find. But we’re all on the same team, we’re just playing different positions.”

McNally said the department has been finding the need for another dog after Jax retired, and soon, a new Belgian Malinois will join the force. Chino Valley has purchased the dog from a Northern Arizona kennel, and is in the process of testing for the K9’s new handler.

Prescott Dog will feature the new team in an upcoming issue. Read the full story of Lisko in the July/August 2019 issue at www.prescottdog.com.