OSAGE, IA--
Gregg Halbach and his dog Winnie are what you'd call inseparable. “She's around people all the time, she likes people, she likes kids, she's around my kids all the time,” said Halbach, the Mitchell County deputy sheriff.Winnie has been a member of the Mitchell County Sheriff's Department for about a year now. “I guess her main purpose for us getting her was for locating drugs at traffic stops or search warrants and her tracking ability,” said Halbach.
And they're pretty pleased with her. “She's actually a pretty good working dog, she does a very good job finding drugs,” said Halbach.
A couple of weeks ago in Osage, Halbach and Winnie were out doing a public appearance. As he was putting Winnie back into the car, she spotted another dog and then took off. “She was actually put back into the squad car and before I was able to shut the door this teenage girl came out of the house behind me, which Winnie saw this dog, and she escaped out of the car and went after this dog,” said Halbach.
The girl was holding the dog over her head--and Winnie started jumping on her to reach the other dog. The girl fell down, but was not seriously hurt. “Winnie did get a hold of the other dog but there were no injuries to that dog, the dog was actually taken to the veterinarian and everything was fine,” said Halbach.
Even though nobody was hurt, they're taking the incident seriously. “We're going to see to it that it doesn't happen again,” said Mitchell County Sheriff Curt Younker. “We'll try and do anything we can do with the trainer and work with her and try to expose her to other dogs and try and work this problem out of her,” said Halbach.
They also say Winnie may wear a muzzle while doing public appearances in the future.
