The New Canaan Police Department’s new K-9 dog is a 15-month-old German shepherd who’s already working well with his handler here.
K-9 Officer Sebastian Obando chose the name “Lito” for a special reason, according to Deputy Chief Andrew Walsh.
“They leave the naming up to us,” Walsh told the Board of Selectmen during its regular meeting Tuesday, held in Town Hall and via videoconference. “Officer Obando’s father’s nickname was ‘Miguelito’ and he passed away when Officer Obando was on field training with us. So he would like to name the dog Lito, and we think that’s a great thing to do.”
The comments came as Walsh asked for permission from the selectmen to spend $10,000 from a special account for the K-9 program to acquire the new dog. First Selectman Dionna Carlson and Selectmen Steve Karl and Amy Murphy Carroll voted 3-0 in favor of the contract with Shelton-based Grasso Shepherds.
Lito succeeds longtime NCPD K-9 dog Apollo in the role. Apollo, who retired last month, had been under Obando’s handling and care since last year. The retired canine has been adopted by another NCPD Officer, Emily Clark.
Walsh said the department is “very supportive of Officer Obando and we appreciate the hard work he’s done with Apollo.”
The selectmen asked how long Lito has been with the department (a short training period to determine whether he’s a good fit with Obando), whether $10,000 is a reasonable price (yes, it’s even low) and whether Lito will live with Obando (yes).
Karl asked about community support for the K-9 program.
“Is there a financial commitment the community’s made?” he said. “As far as I know with Apollo, there was some outside funding that came into care or food. Is there any of that commitment there?”
Walsh said there’s about $40,000 in a special account for the K-9 program that had built up for years and that the $10,000 to acquire Lito will come from that account. Last year, the Town Council made a change whereby, after the special account is drawn down, the K-9 program will live as a regular budget line for NCPD.
“Some people feel strongly about the program and want to donate specifically for that reason,” Karl said. “So that’s why I brought it up. I know we did talk about that last year … And the town is committed to the program. And obviously we’re here to support it.”
Regarding the puppy’s training under Grasso, Walsh said, “They have to go through a pretty stringent process of finding out whether or not that dog can actually do the functions of being a police dog. If it has those natural abilities to have a good scent base and a good ability to listen to commands. They don’t want to give you a puppy that’s that young and then basically it would be on the handler to then not only know how to handle a dog, but also how to train one from birth. And that’s not a thing that police officers are going to be able to handle on their own. So that’s what they do from the start.”