K9 Rik – LaGrange, Georgia

Handler – Sgt. Clayton Bryant

K9 Rik passes away

K9 Rik has passed away, just a few days after officially retiring from the LaGrange Police Department. Rik was diagnosed with cancer in February, but he had been responding well to treatment, according to his partner, Sgt. Clayton Bryant with the LPD. On Wednesday, Rik’s story was featured in The LaGrange Daily News. Rik, a Belgian Malinois, worked with the LPD for six years, including four with Bryant. He helped the department in many ways, including sniffing out narcotics and searching for criminals and missing people. “It’s just incredible the relationship that is built between the handlers and these dogs and our families,” Bryant said Wednesday. “There’s an amount of trust when my pager goes off in the middle of the night or my wife’s pager goes off in the middle of the night. I know and our families know that they would sacrifice their lives for us.” Rik started undergoing chemo shots to treat his lymphoma and he was responding well. On Wednesday, he played fetch with Bryant outside the LPD office. “It’s very hard as a human to learn to trust an animal, but you spend so much time with him. We humans are almost always the weak link when it comes to a K9 team,” Bryant said Wednesday. “Just time and time again, he came through to the point that I trusted him as I would trust any human or more so. No matter how far behind we were, no matter how bad the weather was, no matter how bad the deck was stacked against us, he would never quit. He just never quit.”Rik was nine years old.

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Submitted By Jim Cortina

James A. Cortina has been involved with police dogs since 1972 and currently on the Board of Directors for the Connecticut Police Work Dog Association Inc. Jim has been appointed as Treasurer since its inception in 1991. Jim is one of the charter members of the C.P.W.D.A. organization. Since 1975 he has been a certified professional dog trainer and received his Master Trainer Certification in 1985. During his career he has provided armed K-9 strike crowd control for security agencies in Connecticut and out of state security companies. In conjunction with other members of the Connecticut Police Work Dog Association Inc. Board of Directors, he helped to draft Connecticut Statute 53-247(e) "Intentional Injury or Killing of Police K-9" which was passed by the Senate in 1993 and also assisted in implementing the prestigious Daniel Wasson Memorial K-9 Award in 1992. In 1993 he helped coordinate the North American Police Work Dog Association Nationals in New London, Connecticut. He was appointed Training Director for the New London County Work Dog Association from 1985-1987. He performed decoy work for Connecticut Police Work Dog Association Inc. in police K-9 demonstrations, trained several local police department canines, and coordinated training workshops for out-of-state police departments. He participated in the United States Police K-9 Association Trials in Croton on Hudson, New York in 1985 as a decoy. He is an avid photographer and received photography awards in 1989, 1990, and 1991 and currently takes photographs for the Connecticut Police Work Dog Association Inc.
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