K-9 Rex: Colorado’s Hero Pup Completes Incredible First Mission

True crime doesn’t always end in tragedy, and a recent story involves a canine known as K-9 Rex who works in Arapahoe County, Colorado. It’s a feel-good story for more than one reason. Firstly, folks love a story about service dogs, and they also love a good outcome. Read on to find out more.

Newbie K9 Hero

While it turned out that a missing 7-year-old child wasn’t the victim of a true crime, of course, followers know just how useful dogs can be. And what makes this story even more special is that K-9 Rex isn’t an old hand on the job.

Per KDVR, a missing 7-year-old girl is safe at home after the specialized police dog located her in record time. Notably, it was the very first time he undertook a real-life job. After a report arrived that the young girl went missing, and searchers hadn’t found her after two hours, handler Deputy John Gray arrived.

A Highly Trained Pup

Once they arrived at the scene, Rex got a sniff at some sneakers that the 7-year-old wore. It was test time for Rex, but he’d been trained very well.

In fact, he’s known as a “triple threat” dog. That’s because he serves as a therapy dog, an explosives expert, and a tracking canine. So, when he finds the missing person, he can also comfort them as well.

Just 12 Minutes To Success

While the search went on for a while, Rex got to work and helped to solve the missing person case in an incredibly short time of just 12 minutes. If you don’t know, canines who work with the cops give their handlers two signals. One is where the person might have gone, and also where they probably didn’t go.

Rex led the team through several backyards, and then they found the child. Safely returned to her mom, the combination of human eyes and a dog following the scent trail is a perfect example of teamwork.

Time & Effort In Training

Good police dogs obviously need aptitude, but it doesn’t take five minutes to produce a good one. When Fox News reported about it on YouTube, Deputy Gray said that it takes about “16 weeks” of hard work to get a canine ready for this kind of work. He said that for the pup, it’s not so much about work, but about seeing it all as “a game.” One that gets rewarded, obviously.

However, when the missing girl’s mom wanted to gift K-9 Rex with some sneakers to chew on, that wasn’t part of the plan. After all, part of their training involves not chewing on slippers. Still, it was a nice thought.

Viewers React

The true crime community appreciated the news coverage for more reasons than a potential tragic outcome. That’s because they appreciate the usefulness of canines in police departments. Plus, they love that his first mission was such a glowing success. One of them wrote, “That dog has no idea how awesome he is.”

Here are a few more responses from the discussion area:

• Thank you so much for airing this story of an amazing dog and his loving and kind handler.
• K9 Rex is incredible as is Deputy Grey! Thank you both for your service.
• This is awesome!!!! We need good news.
• He is going to be a great police officer. Good boy!

What are your thoughts? Let us know in the comments below, and remember to come back here often for all your true crime news and updates. Also, we do have a crime channel on TikTok that you can follow.