K9 Officer Bear joins Idaho Fish and Game enforcement team in southeast Idaho

You have all heard of the “dog days of summer”? Well, wintertime is great when you are a dog, too, especially if you are a very busy K9 officer working for the Idaho Department of Fish and Game.

Welcome Idaho Fish and Game’s newest addition to the Southeast Region—K9 Officer Bear.   Bear, a black labrador retriever, joined the region this fall and works alongside Senior Conservation Officer Kolby White of Montpelier.  Bear hails from a long line of award-winning hunting competition dogs belonging to Don and Jackie Wall of Boise.

Historically, Fish and Game's K9 program recruits dogs that are around a year old, but Bear was showing such promising signs as a potential K9 officer that Idaho Fish and Game was able to take him on at only 4 months of age!                   

Official K9 training and certification will not happen until spring of 2025.  In the meantime,  Bear has been learning obedience, practicing patience with occasional office work and long drives in a enforcement truck, enjoying lots of field work, bonding with his handler, and getting used to new experiences that come with the job.

“I have wanted to be a K9 handler since I joined the department in 2021” says White.  “I had the wonderful opportunity of having Senior Conservation Officer Jim Stirling from the Magic Valley Region as one of my field trainers during my first year of being an officer.  Jim was the first K9 handler for Idaho Fish and Game.”

At the time, Stirling’s dog was K9 Pepper, Idaho Fish and Game’s first K9 officer who worked until retirement and has since passed away.   In late 2023, the Southeast Region tragically lost K9 Dexter on duty while helping handler District Conservation Officer Tim Klucken search for poached wildlife near American Falls.  Dexter’s loss was tough for the region on two fronts:  staff missed K9 Dexter as a member of the Fish and Game family and officers missed having such a vital tool in solving wildlife crime. 

White recounts being very impressed when Stirling and Klucken both demonstrated some of their K9 partners’ abilities.  “Watching K9 Dexter and Tim (Klucken) search for items on some of my own cases and even hearing stories of how these amazing dogs help our efforts really inspired me to one day become a handler myself.  I am absolutely honored to have been selected to be the newest K9 handler, and to be joining the ranks of some truly great Fish and Game officers and K9s.”

So, what goes into being the right dog for the job? Certainly having a real “nose” for crime is important, but it isn’t the only desirable trait of a Fish and Game K9 officer.  These dogs must be a sporting breed rather than a German shepherd or malinois (which are typically used for other law enforcement agencies or the military).  And, they must exhibit a high hunt drive as well as a high play drive which makes these dogs teachable.

Before choosing Bear as his K9 partner, White looked at multiple dogs.  Bear thoroughly impressed everyone that evaluated him.  “He had great drive and a great personality. I also felt an almost instant bond with Bear,” shares White.

Bear has continued to impress everyone since he joined the Southeast Region, and it goes without saying he is probably everyone’s favorite Fish and Game employee over here—unless you are a poacher. Bear has excellent “customer service skills”-- getting along with everyone he meets—and you can tell he loves being White’s K9 partner.

“Bear loves going patrolling with me, running around in the mountains, learning new things, and playing with his toys around the yard,” says White.  “I look forward to a long working relationship with Bear as we help our enforcement team investigate wildlife crimes in southeast Idaho.”