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POOCH Dog Now at McNeil Island

Rebound’s obsession with tennis balls took him to McNeil Island.

IT WAS A COLD AND WINDY 41 degrees as POOCH dog, Rebound, waited to be picked up for his transfer from MacLaren Youth Correctional Facility to a prison for adult offenders, McNeil Island Corrections Center in Washington State.

Rebound is a 70-lb, Labrador Retriever/Shepherd mix, about three-years-old. He was picked up as a stray by the Willamette Humane Society in June, and “bailed out” by Project POOCH in August.

Rebound is a friendly, good-natured dog and loves people. But he is also large and rambunctious and high energy – not a good match for a family with small children younger than five.

His youth trainer described Rebound as “crazy about tennis balls – throw the ball for him, and he’ll be your best friend!” When a police officer looking for a partner heard about his tennis ball obsession, he immediately recognized that Rebound has the traits that make a good narcotics detection dog.

The officer visited Rebound at POOCH and pre-tested him for the qualities a narcotics dog needs. Rebound was happy to demonstrate his strong motivation for tennis balls and his ability to find where they’d been hidden by his POOCH trainer.

It only took 30 minutes to show that Rebound is a good candidate for training as a narcotics detection dog. Rebound is now enrolled in the nationally known, six-week Narcotics Dog Academy on McNeil Island. A game of fetch is now serious business for him. The officer explained that acceptance by the program, like acceptance by a trade school or college, is only the first step.

The training is rigorous and Rebound will have to excel to be certified as a narcotics search dog.

We all anxiously await the news from Rebound, and wish him every success in his new law enforcement career.