By Tracy Harmon
The Pueblo Chieftain
CANON CITY — A very unlikely dog and handler team managed to overcome stereotypes to make Department of Corrections history.
She was the only female K9 handler and he was a castoff dog destined for euthanasia at a pound. Their partnership had them both giving their all to forge new ground in the fight against illegal prison contraband.
The journey started when Brady, a black Lab, was rescued from ‘death row’ at the Denver Dumb Friends League by the Safe Harbor Lab Rescue. The rescue donated 2-year-old Brady to the Prison Trained K9 Companion program in March 2005, said program director Debi Stevens. ‘Because he was so large and active, they could not find a home for him.
‘His inmate trainer soon discovered that he would do anything for a tennis ball, including smell high and low to find it.’
Enter Walt Clark, retired head trainer for the Greenwood Police K9 unit. He taught Brady scent detection for free. Brady put his good sniffer to work six years ago at the Canon Minimum Centers ‘where he has done what was said could not be done — detect tobacco,’ Stevens said.
It was there he found his best friend for life, Vicki Romanski. Romanski, already a 22-year veteran of the Department of Corrections, became its only female K9 handler.
‘It was definitely my pleasure,’ the recently retired Romanski said after six years working with Brady. ‘I was the only female canine handler and he was thought to not have enough drive, so we worked hard because of those opinions to prove a point that we could be just as good.’
The record for the team is impressive — 19 tobacco items, four cellphones, three iPods and 11 marijuana finds.
‘Not bad for a dog that somebody decided was such an untrainable dog that they dumped him off at the shelter,’ Stevens said.
When Territorial prison was evacuated for the Royal Gorge Fire in June, six dog teams combed over the prison in search of contraband and Brady was ‘the only one who found marijuana,’ Romanski said.
Even now that the two are retired and while traveling for vacations, they still get a chance to show off for relatives who like to hide their cellphones to see if Brady can find them.
‘I think he would do anything for me,’ Romanski said.