Vail Magazine (mid winter/spring 2009 issue) publish an article by Joy Overbeck called “A Dog’s Life, The Hard Working Canines of the Vail Valley.” In this article Overbeck includes a write up on Officer Ryan Millbern and his canine partner Star who was trained here at Highland Canine and donated to the Vail Police Department. Star is doing great so we thought we would share all their accomplishments as a team so far.

The Vail Police Department’s Canine Officer, Ryan Millbern, has a Belgian Malinois-German Shepherd mix called Star who brings a similiar enthusiasm to her job as a tracking and narcotics detection dog. In 28 narcotics arrests last year, Star’s expert nose, not the human officers, found the drugs hidden in the home or car, according to Millbern. A few years ago, the officer was trolling the internet for a dog he could work with at a price the VPD could afford, but a well-trained police dog often costs up to $15,000.00 an impossible figure. He cam across the website run by dog-trainers Jason and Erin Purgason who own Highland Canine Training in North Carolina, and read about Star, a “second chance” hard-luck case that the couple had taken in after an abused puppyhood.

“These are great people who take dogs like Star that are unfixable and they fix them,” says Millbern, who flew to North Carolina for three weeks of training with Star, which the Purgason’s donated to the police department along with the training. “She’s a cuddle bug now and a a much loved member of our family.” Through her drug finding skills are legendary, Star is also trained to track people and articles like money or a gun a criminal has trhown into the weeds. Incredibly, once she even found a set of keys a car thief had thrown into a bank of fresh snow along I-70.

When not fighting crime, Star assists Millbern in student presentations at local schools “We talk about what she does for the community,” explains Millbern. “About drugs and how her nose works and how she can find them if they’re lost. Then they get to pet her and she loves every minute of it.”