TOLEDO, Ohio — A four-legged member of the Toledo Police Department is celebrating one year on the force.
K-9 Officer Mako joined the Toledo Police Department on Dec. 9, 2019. Mako took over for his big brother, JJ, who retired after six years of service.
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Even though he's only been part of the department for a year, he's already been critical in some big busts at the young age of two.
"Mako's unique, he's very athletic," said Mako's partner, Officer Brett Kohlman. "He's a very athletic dog, he's just very headstrong. He's going to do anything I ask him to do."
"He's my partner. He rides around with me all night. We do a various amount of tasks in the city wherever we're called. Sometimes with other jurisdictions too," said Kohlman. "And then when we're done, 4:30 in the morning, he goes home and he's just a dog."
Working with a K-9 isn't always easy and takes a lot of training, but Kohlman has nothing but praise for his partner.
"We started in August of last year, I started training him up at home myself. And then we went to K-9 school for six weeks, graduated in December, the first week of December, and then we hit the streets out here," said Kohlman. "It's a challenge, you've always gotta be training him, always gotta be working with him. But then it's fun. He's a fun dog and he's a happy dog. He loves people. So I'm looking forward to helping out the city and keeping it a little safer with him."