K-9 police dog fired from one job, may get another
Posted: February 10, 2014 - 3:55am

The Gulfport Police Department is sending Fred the Belgian Malinois back to U.S. K-9 Unlimited in Kaplan, La. (AP Photo/Gulfport Police via The Sun Herald)
GULFPORT, Miss. (AP) -- Fred the K-9 didn't cut it with the Gulfport, Miss., Police Department but he may still find respectable employment elsewhere. The Sun Herald reports that Fred did fine on patrols and sniffing out drugs, but sometimes got distracted, stopping to play with a soda can he spied on a floor while searching a building, for example. US K-9 Unlimited in Kaplan, La., agreed to take Fred back, but the Harrison County Sheriff's Office in Mississippi has expressed interest in him. K-9 Unlimited owner Roger Abshire says the 3-year-old Belgian Malinois he bought in the Netherlands was selected out of hundreds of dogs, so his talent is not an issue. Abshire says Fred's first Gulfport handler took medical leave and Fred didn't bond the quite same with the second partner.