Dodge Co. Sheriff's K-9 Paige to retire after officials learned her first love will always be hunting

DODGE COUNTY -- Officials with the Dodge County Sheriff's Office say a decision has been made to allow K-9 officer "Paige" to retire.

Paige has served the community as a K-9 officer since the summer of 2011.

According to the Sheriff's Office, Paige has had numerous successes during her time, including drug finds and suspects tracked. Her largest drug find was on December 26th, 2011 when she located 40 pounds of marijuana hidden in an RV.

Paige had two handlers during her time at the Sheriff's Office. Her first handler was Deputy Chad Enright. When Deputy Enright was promoted to a lieutenant position K-9 Paige was transferred to Sgt. Joe Nicholas.

According to Sheriff's officials, Paige has always been reliable when indicating to the odor of controlled substances -- but officials learned over time that her true love is hunting.

Paige spent the first year of her life training to be a hunting/sport dog before changing careers and serving as a deputy sheriff. Sheriff's officials found that due to her prior training, her focus was affected, which has impacted her productivity.

Sheriff's officials hoped that through continued training and time on the job, Paige would learn to better develop her skills in detecting controlled substances and would focus less on her first love of bird hunting -- but her first love continues to be hunting.

As a result, the decision has been made to allow Paige to retire.

Sheriff's officials said this in a statement: