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Handler – Sgt. Dustin Parent
Gilford police and community mourn death of K-9 Agbar
The entire community is mourning the passing of K-9 Agbar, the beloved police dog who won the hearts of everyone, with a few exceptions, while working with handler Sgt. Dustin Parent from 2005 until the dog’s retirement in 2014. He was about 13 years old. Agbar od Alocha, his official name, came to the Gilford Police Department from The Czech Republic when he was 18 months old and was assigned to Parent, who was the first canine officer in the department’s history. Parent, who was only 22 years old, remembered Agbar as a “hard” dog to train and said that working with him taught him patience and perseverance – traits Parent has used throughout his career as a police officer. Agbar was a very vocal dog,” said Parent, adding that every time the lights and sirens went on, Agbar began barking. “I lost the hearing in my right ear but it was worth it.” Parent said he never doubted that Agbar had his back and proved it to him on several occasions, including one that made national news when in 2006 Agbar fell from a second-story window in an attempt to capture a man who had pulled a knife on a woman and stole her purse. Despite his plummet, Agbar led police to the location of the man. Agbar had a special place in the dispatch room of the old police station where he would wait by the feet of the dispatchers while Parent was in the officers room doing paperwork, said Dispatcher Timothy Doris yesterday. “I used to share my supper with him,” Doris said, adding that he knows Agbar loved pot roast and carrots. “He was just a big pile of mush, until he had to go to work,” Doris said. “Then his ears would stand straight up and there was no stopping him.” For as much as he loved barking while at work, Parent said Agbar was very quiet at home and rarely barked unless it was at the lawnmower. “The evil lawnmower had the way of bringing out the work in him,” Parent said. Parent said that “Agbar had no quit in him.” He noted that he survived the odds twice, once in 2006 and once in 2010 when only emergency surgery saved him from a stomach problem common in German shepherds. Parent said the dog came back better and stronger after each of his close calls. “It was a privilege to be Agbar’s handler,” said Parent who said the dog gave him the opportunity to learn a lot about himself as a person and as a police officer. “I loved that meat head.”
