Lake County Sheriff’s Office asking youth to name 2 new K-9s

WAUKEGAN – Sheriff John Idleburg announced the Lake County Sheriff’s Office will be adding two new K-9s to the sheriff’s K-9 unit.

The sheriff’s office is in the final process of selecting the newest K-9s, which will be male German shepherds between the ages of 18 and 24 months, according to a news release.

Lake County Sheriff’s K-9s Axel, Boomer, Danno, Dax, Duke, Echo, Ryker, Tera(byte) and their handlers have a proven track record of success for the Lake County community, according to the release. K-9s locate missing people, fleeing suspects, illegal drugs and discarded firearms or other evidence, sniff for explosives and search for illegal digital evidence.

In keeping with tradition, the Lake County Sheriff’s Office again is asking for area youth’s help in naming the two newest colleagues. Lake County youth enrolled in kindergarten through senior year of high school are invited to participate.

Rules of the naming process are as follows:

• Public, private and home-schooled students are invited to participate.

• Children must have the permission of their teacher/school and/or parent/guardian.

• Children must be sponsored by their teacher or parent/guardian.

• Children must be currently enrolled (or home-schooled) in grades K-12.

• One entry per student is allowed per dog (two entries total).

• All of the information on the form is required for vote to be counted.

• The winning name will be selected by the Lake County Sheriff’s Office.

• Students who selected the winning name will be invited to participate in the new K-9′s swearing-in ceremony.

• Name submissions are due by noon Sept. 9.

“Our K-9s are an incredibly valuable asset to everyone who lives or works in Lake County,” Idleburg said. “Our goal is to have at least one of our K-9s on duty 24 hours a day, seven days a week, to assist our sheriff’s deputies and municipal partners. I am very excited to again ask our youth to participate in the naming of our two newest K-9s and I look forward to seeing their selections.”

A link for participating in the naming can be found at https://bit.ly/3pvaTvK