COLUMBUS, Ohio — The Ohio State Fire Marshal is mourning the loss of one of its four-legged own, a retired explosive detection canine named Dodger. The dog died Wednesday at the age of 13.
Dodger was born in Ohio and rescued from the greater Cincinnati area before starting his career with the State Fire Marshal in 2010 as the department's first explosive detection canine.
The State Fire Marshal trained Dodger to detect many different types of explosives, firearms and post-blast debris, which qualified the pup to support missions with Homeland Security and other Ohio law enforcement agencies.
Over the course of his career, Dodger worked on bomb threats, protection details, sweeps before major events and evidence searches.
Before his death, Dodger made one last visit to the State Fire Marshal's Reynoldsburg campus where the crew gave him his final "thank yous" and "good boys."
Dodger is praised as the backbone of the department after working on 1,438 missions while being a part of 287 demonstrations and 387 finds.
"Dodger had been the backbone of our canine program for years," said Kevin S. Reardon, State Fire Marshal. “This is a tremendous loss and we will certainly miss Dodger but he will live forever in our hearts.”
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