Pflugerville's Own 'Coco' Is Heartwarming Story Of The Season

PFLUGERVILLE, TX — A former shelter dog has not only found a forever home but a job as well, sniffing for narcotics at a area school district.

Pflugerville Animal Welfare Services officials said they first met Coco when she was surrendered by her owners for not getting along with their other dogs. The two-year-old pit bull mix eventually was adopted, only to be returned after her previous owners found her too much to handle.

Yet shelter officials didn't give up on Coco, offering the dog a different path: Three months of training at Starmark Academy, a state-approved trade school offering dog training certifications. Through a partnership with Pflugerville Animal Welfare Services, dogs like Coco are able to get trained by Starmark at no cost to the shelter. Once there, selected animals get basic and advanced obedience, and sometimes other service work training such as scent detection and agility, according to shelter officials.

Coco learned scent work and obedience before being sent back to the shelter the first week of November, according to shelter officials. She was then sent to Universal K9 along with two other dogs to become fully trained police canines. Shelter officials noted that Universal K9 looks for shelter dogs that are intelligent, energetic and have a high toy and hunt drive and trains them for narcotics and/or explosives detection work.

“Dogs with these traits are repeatedly returned to shelters after being placed in homes,” said Pflugerville Animal Shelter Director Rhonda McLendon, “but these are the same traits that make excellent working dogs.”

Law enforcement agencies that cannot afford to purchase a trained dog — which typically run from $15,000 to $20,000 — are able to send a police officer to be trained with the K-9 for free, and the dog is donated to the agency under a police grant program. Law enforcement agencies nationwide apply to send officers to their program for the cost-free K9s, according to officials. Once the officer completes the handler course, the two go home together and start working at the agency.

Universal K9 placed Coco with Commerce ISD, where she will be their first ever K-9 narcotics dog. That's where you'll find Coco these days, sniffing out narcotics in a city some 250 miles north of Pflugerville where she had her humble beginnings. Coco is the Pflugerville Animal Shelter’s second dog to be placed as a narcotics dog this year, with two more expecting placement soon, shelter officials said.

While Coco's previous owners may not have known it at the time, she's a pretty special dog that's making a real impact, McClendon suggested: “There is value in shelter dogs, and these former Pflugerville shelter dogs are making the world a safer place.”
>>> Image courtesy of Pflugerville Animal Welfare Services