@foxydogteam

I must apologise for the lack of blogs over the last month. Things have been quite full on with training commitments and other operational deployments. Busy is what we do best! I thought I'd do a blog to celebrate the working career of Police Dog Neo who's working time with Sussex Police is drawing to a close in the summer - that is if the summer ever appears?! Neo has been a true gem to me. He came to me in unfortunate circumstances you could say. I was struggling with a new search dog called Jessica. She is a black Labrador bitch. She passed the Pro-Active Search Dog course, being able to locate all of the substances and articles that is required. However, sadly, when we went operational, Jess struggled in some of the places that we had to search. As you may imagine, some of the premises we have to search are not particularly pleasant and this had such a negative effect on her searching ability. We tried to work on this but sadly things didn't pan out and in time she had to be withdrawn from service. She is now a happy member of a family in West Sussex, perched nicely on their leather suite! It makes me happy to see her so settled and happy in her new life. Neo was a fully trained police search dog when he came to me from a handler at Gatwick. Neo is a black and white coloured English Springer Spaniel who has been with Sussex Police for about 7 years. Unfortunately Neo suffered a nasty ligament injury in one of his rear legs which required major orthorpedic surgery which was aired on a TV series called 'The Bionic Vet'. Neo had a re-alignment operation on his knee joint which went really well. Neo then underwent months of hydrotherapy which is, in my belief, what enabled him to work on for many more years. The odds were against him at the start. He is a strong willed little fellow and totally defied the odds! He's adored swimming ever since! The only down side is that arthritis has set into the joint as you can imagine and as a result he is to retire about a year earlier than expected. This is for his quality of life which is really important. He has totally earned the feet up time he is about to experience! I have found a new home for him, close to me which will enable me to still see him lots! It will be weird not to have him at home but it is the best thing for him in the long run. He will love his new home as he gets to stay there from time to time already! They love him to pieces. He could have stayed with us but what with PD Abbi and the new search dog, along with our pet pooch, I did not want Neo to be left out. He deserves more. Neo has had so many operational finds throughout the course of his career. We are talking hundreds of thousands of pounds in cash, drugs and firearms. Ridding the streets of drugs, cash and guns from the proceeds of crime pleases me immensely. It's a big part of what I joined this job to do. Neo is such a clever dog who has been a credit to Sussex Police and I believe he warranted a whole blog of his very own. I know we are not done yet Neo but I want to thank you from the bottom of my heart for being such a top police dog and pal. Your replacement has some seriously big pads and nose to fill! Bless you mate :) #followthenose

PD Neo in Training today. Located and indicates on a firearm secreted. Good Boy :)