Owensboro’s Search and Rescue dog Rocco is quite unique. He’s four years old, he’s been with the team since he was a puppy, and he’s the first dog to be certified in Daviess County — and he’s the only German Shepherd in the state to reach that certification.
John Clouse, Deputy Director at Daviess County Emergency Management, said the state doesn’t have many non-hound dogs that have been certified for Search and Rescue. Plus, most of the dogs that do get certified are in Eastern Kentucky.
This certification came after several months of training for Rocco. The Search and Rescue team typically goes out and practices twice a week for a few hours. As for Rocco, he went through a lot of training in more unique ways.
His handler Amy Tipton said during the pandemic they found some ways to do training while the team wasn’t practicing like usual.
Tipton said as a hairdresser she would ask her clients what their weekends looked like, and if they were free, they would set tracks for Rocco to practice with.
“Even though my team didn’t train I would still go and train with my boyfriend or with my granddaughter,” Tipton said.
Throughout the process, Tipton said Rocco was very receptive to the lessons. Rocco is trained in both rural and urban areas, and Tipton was adamant that Rocco succeeded in his obedience training.
Another way that Rocco is unique is how he identifies his search subject — he licks them.
“When [dogs] identify the subject, they will either sit or lay down at them and my dog doesn’t. He just, he licks them,” Tipton said. “Which isn’t a common thing and I’ve tried to get it rearranged where he’ll just sit, but he won’t.”
Clouse said through the certification process, he has seen tremendous progress from Rocco and is excited for Rocco now that he has been certified.
