ST. LANDRY PARISH, La. (KLFY)- The St. Landry Parish Sheriff’s Office recently got two new K-9’s to join the team, Tank and Landry.
They were a gift from St. Landry Parish Crime Stoppers.

“They’ve been trained, they’ve been certified,” explains Sheriff Bobby Guidroz.

Hank, a malamute, has been trained to sniff out explosives. His handler, Lt. Michael Darbonne, tells News 10 why having Hank is beneficial for the department,

“We’ve been having a high rise of bomb threats at local schools and businesses, so being a lieutenant and a K-9 handler with a dog trained in explosives, I’m able to respond to those calls. Also having an explosive dog, we’re able to clear a school or business a lot faster than having the school shut down for long periods of time, having to go man-to-man searching, these dogs track pretty quick.”

Landry is a bloodhound who is trained for search and rescue, whether it’s on land or in water. Her handler, Sgt. Elliot Bertrand, explains how Landry makes a difference when it comes to searching for bodies or people,

“She goes from ‘A’ to ‘B’. So if we can pinpoint an about location of where that person went missing from, she’ll bring us straight to where that person is versus having to do grid searches and other exhausting searches.”

News 10 decided to put Landry’s skills to the test by hiding out in the woods while Landry was elsewhere with her handler. It only took Landry a few minutes to track us and find her! Check out the video above to see the search.
The sheriff says the dogs are available to help other agencies in the area that may need assistance with search and rescue or to find a bomb.