Lycos has a natural play drive and prey drive and both of these are sharpened by daily training with his partner Deputy Stephen Brown.  As a Department K-9 team they catch bad guys, find drugs, locate evidence and even mingle with school children when giving public demonstrations of their skills.

Lycos, a Groenendael  from Holland, is a 60 pound eight-year old certified Royal Dutch Police Dog. He and Deputy Stephen Brown have worked together for seven years.

Deputy Brown and Canine Lycos are just one of eight regular patrol canine teams assigned to Sheriff’s Department Operations.  five canine/handler teams are assigned to North Operations and three teams are assigned to South Operations.  The Reserve Unit also has two narcotics detection teams attached to the Canine Team as well. Both teams are used by South Operations.

The combined efforts of The Orange County Sheriff’s Department  Canine Team provides the department with almost twenty-four a day/seven days a week coverage which is greatly needed, considering the team is already up to 800 deployments for the year. The Sheriff’s Canines are tasked with three missions in the field:  suspect apprehension, narcotics detection and the recovery of evidence.

”Lycos will find evidence such as guns and knives contaminated with a suspect’s odor.”  Deputy Brown said, “His nose is sensitive enough to find a key inside of a good sized park.” Along with human odor Lycos can find the four major drug odors: marijuana, heroin, methamphetamine, cocaine and their derivatives. “No other tool is as versatile to law enforcement as canines are.”  Not only are the canines capable of apprehending criminals hiding on the street, they are social enough to regularly participate in public demonstrations at schools and Boy Scout meetings.  “Not every agency has canines as well rounded as the Sheriff’s Department.” More...