DCSO welcomes newest K-9, ‘Masa’

The Deschutes County Sheriff’s Office announced that its newest patrol K-9, Masa, hit the streets of Central Oregon Monday morning, replacing retired K-9 Zeus.

Masa is an 18-month-old Czech-Shepard from Slovakia. Last week, she successfully completed her certification training, making her and her handler Deputy Ben Bartness ready for patrol use this week, Sgt. William Bailey said.

Bartness is a seven-year veteran of the sheriff’s office and has served in the positions of field law enforcement technician, patrol deputy and police training officer. Bartness is also a U.S. Marine Corps veteran.

The sheriff’s office has four K-9 teams that are assigned to the Patrol Division. There are three tracking and apprehension K-9 teams and one narcotics detection team. K-9 teams are on-call 24 hours a day and devote a significant amount of time to ongoing training, Bailey said.

They train individually almost every day and train with other K-9 teams in Central Oregon on a weekly basis. The K-9 teams also regularly assist other law enforcement agencies throughout Central Oregon. All of the teams are certified annually by the Oregon Police Canine Association (http://www.opca.com/home).