News : Benton County Sheriff's Office bids farewell to K-9 Officer Vader

Retired Benton County Sheriff's K-9 Vader passes away at age 13 after serving the county since 2007

Many of us think about the men and women that serve us round the clock with great appreciation. They are there whenever we call.

Over the last few years, one of these public servants has been retired following surgery, in which he recovered and returned to work for about 5 or 6 months, but then after the second round of surgery to again remove kidney stones, he had to retire. They said that he just couldn't jump anymore, so as a result, he had to retire.

You wouldn't be able to pick him out of a line-up, well, maybe you could, he'd be the one sitting perfectly still. But if you saw him in a crowd, you wouldn't know that he was on duty. 

He wasn't a very tall guy, but he traveled to many of the area schools and nursing homes as well as community events over the years. There's no way to know just how many he visited, but he was always the one that probably received the most hugs.

Everyone loved the guy, well, almost everyone. The kids wanted to see him, the old people smiled when they saw him because he was that good at his job. Probably the only people that didn't want to see him were the criminals.

We often forget about the little guys on duty, sporting a fur coat they do their job, all for a doggie treat. 

Vader, the 13 1/2 year old K-9 was a longtime member of the Benton County Sheriff's office's team and the K-9 partner of Detective Garrison Reekers. Reekers has had the heartbreaking task of saying goodbye to his K-9, Vader, a little over a week ago.

Detective Reekers has been with the department since 2006 adding Vader to his household on October 31, 2007. Vader arrived from North Iowa Canine, out of Fort Dodge and was an experimental dog. The organization usually obtained dogs from overseas, but Vader was special, he was born and raised in Iowa arriving for training at about 4 1/2 months of age. Vader was ready for his "forever home" when he was about a year and a half old, and he remained with the Reekers family.

Vader's arrival to the department was the result of money had been donated to start the program that brought Vader to work at the Sheriff's Office. The department obtained the "dual-purpose dog" who was trained to locate drugs, to track individuals and do building searches. 

One of the most memorable accomplishments that Vader had to his credit was something that his handler recalled with a chuckle. He sniffed out drug residue on cash that was in a vehicle that had been pulled over along Interstate 380. From that discovery, the department went on to find drugs, guns, and cash as a result.

That alone is a pretty good night for a K-9, but "the thing of it was" said Reekers, "he did that over the scent of 42 air fresheners, that was pretty cool" Reekers said with a grin.

Vader also had the sad task of locating a deceased individual, something that Reekers wasn't sure that the dog knew how to do, but Vader did it in the middle of the winter.

Another accomplishment to Vader's credit, he never had to bite any fleeing suspects to stop them, but he did rip the shirt off of one guy trying to escape said Reekers.

Officially dogs that work with the department have to train four hours a week to keep their certification.

Detective Reeker explained that the dog is never off duty. What might look like simply playing with Vader was also teaching and training him to respond at all times to the direction of the handler, it's always an ongoing task.

One of his fond memories happened during one of these sessions. While outside playing, the officer realized that he had lost his keys. He gave the dog the order to search and Vader promptly located the keys, laying down next to them in the grass for the officer to find.

Detective Reeker explained that when you are with someone 24 hours a day, you get to know them really well, and the same went for Vader. He said that Vader knew him so well that the dog could sense just from a look, how he moved or sometimes how he stood what Reeker would wanted him to do.

Even after Vader wasn't able to work in his official capacity, one of his last outings was Saurkraut Days in Blairstown where Reekers said the dog was a hit.  

Thanks, Vader for your service.