Colorado’s first crisis response police therapy dog is in Castle Rock

DENVER (KDVR) — The state’s first crisis response police therapy dog is joining the Castle Rock Police Department.

The new K-9 officer is an English Labrador named Buddy. He will be the first police therapy dog permanently paired with a co-responder team in Colorado, according to the department. His trainer, Michael Connors, said in a release that the dog has an “intuitive response to stress.”

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Buddy will work with Castle Rock Master Police Officer Tom O’Donnell and Clinician Kalie Douberly, who serve on the Community Response Team. The two police and mental health co-responding teams are dispatched on calls for service that involve a mental health crisis and were established in 2017.

“His ability to ground those in mentally struggling times and de-escalate stressful situations is essential for what his job will be while working with Officer O’Donnell and Clinician Douberly,” Connors said.

“These skills will allow his handlers the ability to grant their community a calming presence during complicated times,” Connors said. “Buddy demonstrated confidence, eagerness and excitement when granted opportunities to work in challenging environments, and over the past several months of training, he’s shown daily that his skills continue to grow.”

Buddy is also a gift: Connors trained and donated Buddy to the department through his position as founder and president of ConnorsK9 – P.A.W.S., a Castle Rock nonprofit. Connors began teaching Buddy when he was 8 weeks old, training every day for 7 months and garnering more than 500 training hours.

O’Donnell and Buddy already hold several credentials including a Multi-Discipline Therapy K-9 certification through the Brevard County Sheriff’s Office Paws & Stripes College in Florida. O’Donnell and Buddy also earned their American Kennel Club Therapy Dog Novice, Therapy Dog and Therapy Dog Advanced titles and passed the AKC Canine Good Citizen Basic, Urban and Advanced programs.

Connors said overall, the new K-9 officer’s training is valued at over $7,500 but said “the money is just a number” for him.

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“We focus more on the quality and the dog’s capabilities to better their person or community,” Connors said. “When the opportunity arose to provide our community and local police department with a trained therapy dog to assist the department’s officers, local schools and also the community through his work, we were honored to serve by donating Buddy to our hometown community.”

Castle Rock has 4 police therapy dog teams

This is the agency’s fourth police therapy dog team. The agency was the first in Colorado to pair a school resource officer with a certified therapy dog in April 2021.

“We pride ourselves on being a forward-thinking, innovative agency,” Chief Jack Cauley in the department’s announcement. “Just like the (school resource officer)-therapy dog teams, we hope the co-responder and police therapy dog teams become a new norm in the policing profession both locally and beyond.”

The police department currently has three resource officer-therapy dog teams: Master Police Officer Scott Gillespie and Buttercup at Castle View High School (paired in 2021), Master Police Officer Luke Godfrey and Rocket at Mesa Middle School (2022) and Officer Dave Knight and Ru at Castle Rock Middle School (2023).

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