A second K-9 unit will give the Leelanau County Sheriff’s Office a boost with search-and-rescue missions, drug detection and much more.

After about a decade with one dog, the office is doubling its four-legged deputy count with the addition of “Keno.” The young German shepherd will join “Klouse,” who has been with the department since 2021.

The program began in late 2013 with the now-deceased “Nico,” who became a familiar face around the county during eight years of working with Sgt. Greg Hornkohl.

“The value of these dogs is far beyond what some people think,” Sheriff Mike Borkovich tells The Ticker. "They’re not just mean dogs that go chase people. They are very, very intelligent and very useful.”

The specially trained dogs are particularly adept at finding lost people in the county’s many wild areas, Borkovich says.

“They find lost children; they find lost hikers out in the sand dunes. They’ll also find elderly people with Alzheimer’s or dementia that have wandered off from a facility” he says. “They are very effective at this, and it cuts the time during these searches way down.”

But they’re also just as effective at finding something else that has been plaguing the county and northern Michigan at large in recent years – drugs. The dual-trained dogs can detect fentanyl, heroin, methamphetamines and more.

“We’ve had so many people overdosing and dying,” Borkovich says. “It’s something we are very concerned about.”

Hornkohl says he became flat-out amazed at Nico’s ability to smell even miniscule amounts of narcotics during his time working with the dog.

“How I always explain it to people is that when you or I go into a pizza shop, we just smell the pizza,” he says. “These guys can differentiate between the pepperoni, the mushrooms, whatever it is. Their ability is just phenomenal.”

Hornkohl now supervises Deputy Jordan Strope, who handles Keno, and Deputy Cameron Drzewiecki, who handles Klouse. The dogs live with the officers full-time. In addition to sniffing out lost people and drugs, they also serve as important protection for their handlers.

“They're great partners, they're great deputies, and we really do bond with them –  but they’re also a tool in this department that helps make sure we go home to our families,” Hornkohl says. “We’re out there by ourselves, and having Nico in the car with me for eight years gave me peace of mind when I was on a call. If backup was 30 minutes away, all I had to do was press a button and Nico was right there to help me.”

That being said, Nico never once had to sink his teeth into a suspect.

“My dog never got a bite on a bad guy,” Hornkohl says. “Just bringing the dog out, most people will look at him and say ‘I’m done.’”

The addition of a second dog means the sheriff’s office will have a dog on both the day and night shifts, Borkovich says.

“We really haven’t had that opportunity before,” he says. “Greg had to sort of be the jack-of-all-trades and be available for calls around the clock, drugs and searches and stuff.”

Deputies have made significant efforts to get their dogs out in the community, not only for good public relations, but also as a deterrent. The kids love seeing the dogs in school, Borkovich said, but also are plainly aware of what one of them might find when walking up and down a row of lockers. Deputies have on several occassions – with the schools' permission – done such searches. 

“Kids see that and realize that maybe they shouldn’t bring that stuff to school,” Hornkohl says.

The sheriff’s office does a golf outing fundraiser each year to help cover the cost of the dogs, which require food, proper care and continuous training for themselves and their handlers. The program would not be possible without this fundraiser, Borkovich says. The date has not yet been finalized for this year, but it will be in the late spring or summer.