Cocoa Police Department’s Newest K-9s ‘Hasko and Draco’ Graduate K-9 School
By Space Coast Daily // August 1, 2024
K-9s are now dual certified for patrol and detection work
BREVARD COUNTY • COCOA, FLORIDA – The Cocoa Police Department’s newest patrol dogs both graduated the agency’s rigorous K-9 school and are now dual certified for patrol and detection work.
K-9 Hasko, the newest patrol dog, is a 4-year-old German Shepherd, who joined the agency in April of this year.
Hasko, has been with his handler, K-9 Officer Mike Fitzgerald, since Hasko was 8-weeks old. K-9 Draco also went through the training with his new handler, K-9 Officer Cierra Johnson. Draco is a 4-year-old Belgian Malinois.
Both teams successfully met the strictest state standards set by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement to serve the community in the role of patrol K9.
The training required for a patrol K-9 team, 480-hours, is the most amount of training required out of all the disciplines in police patrol work. It involves obedience control, apprehension work, and search work.
Additional training includes detection work. The dogs are trained with a primary focus on positive reinforcement using a reward-based system. The dog is motivated to work for praise from the handler which is built through extensive bonding exercises. It is the relationship between the dog and the handler that determines the success of the police K9 team. The K9 must love, trust and respect the handler in order to work as a team.
The Cocoa Police Department K-9 Academy was led by veteran K-9 Officer Dan Rhoades with K-9 Maverick and K-9 Officer Brian Delos Santos with K-9 Kyra.
