Thin blue leash
By Alex Wittwer
The Observer
UNION COUNTY — Molly is one of the most popular dogs in Union County.
Unless you happen to be a criminal suspect trying to flee from the cops.
She is the sole K-9 unit at the Union County Sheriff’s Office. As a Dutch shepherd, she’s one of the smallest breeds of police dogs available to law enforcement agencies. She also is one of the most affectionate.
Molly and her handler, deputy Dane Jensen, started their shift Wednesday, Feb. 24, behind Walmart in Island City for obedience training. The sun was out and the day was clear. Molly began to get excited as they neared the location. For her, training is akin to playtime.
When Jensen issues commands to Molly, they’re in German.
“It was easier for me to learn her language than it was to teach her English,” he said.
A delivery truck began to offload merchandise nearby, but Molly sat as still as a statue, her attention on Jensen. He started a stopwatch to record their training. He must log at least 15 hours a month of training with the canine to keep her certified.
The training is mostly routine, but Molly is enthused. Jensen said it’s important that police dogs have fun — if they don’t, they’re not as efficient and they won’t work for you.
He returned Molly to the vehicle then rubbed a spent shotgun shell and a cellphone on his chest underneath his shirt and tossed them into a bush. It’s training for finding evidence that fleeing suspects drop or discard.
Approximately 20 minutes later, Molly exited the SUV and followed Jensen obediently to the area to search for the articles, but she needs a special cue in order to do her task.
Jensen began dancing.
“They say K-9 handlers are the goofiest,” he said.
She understood the cue and took off on her search. She found the shell in less than 30 seconds.
In July 2020, Molly had her first big tracking win as a K-9.
There was a drive-by shooting in Cove, and the driver of the vehicle dropped off five juveniles with the firearm in Riverside Park, La Grande. Law enforcement apprehended two of the suspects, but they could not find the firearm. Molly sniffed out the gun in a bush under the footbridge in a matter of minutes.
Getting Molly
In January 2019, Jensen had been tracking a string of burglaries. They almost had the suspect at one point, but he managed to slip away.
“There was snow on the ground, and officers followed his tracks to an alley and, well, in the alley there’s a bunch of tracks,” the deputy said. “They ended up at some house that was far away, when in reality he was two blocks from where he ditched the car.”
The man went on to commit five more burglaries, Jensen said, before catching the suspect in March that year. For Jensen, this was the catalyst for restarting the county’s K-9 program.
“I was upset,” Jensen said. “If we’d had a dog, we would have caught him that first night and prevented all these other victims.”
With the help of Erik McGlothin, the K-9 handler for the Clackamas County Sheriff’s Office, Jensen did the research and put together a plan for getting Molly.
In total, the briefing he presented to then-Sheriff Boyd Rasmussen was four pages long. It included budget, operating costs and benefits that would help the sheriff’s office solve cases.
To top it off, the Clackamas County’s Sheriff Office donated a K-9 cruiser to Union County.
“The sheriff looked at it and said, ‘I didn’t know dogs could do this much,’” Jensen recalled.
Jensen’s passion for the project was the tipping point.
He received the go-ahead, and from there it was all nerves. Jensen had little experience working with police dogs.
Jensen booked a flight to California with McGlothin to Jurupa Valley, home to dog training school Adlerhorst International. Several other law enforcement agencies were there, each wanting to select a dog for their unit. Among the 70 dogs available, many departments wanted Molly, the only Dutch shepherd, and the smallest dog at the kennel.
“They’re rare,” Jensen said of the breed.
When they announced Molly was headed for La Grande, Jensen was ecstatic — and nervous. Molly now was his companion for life.
First days
Though small, Molly is not to be trifled with. For the fledgling handler, it was time to learn the ropes and take the leash. While Jensen said he had an idea what he was getting into, he didn’t know what to expect.
“She wanted to play — I know now she wanted to play — but she scared me,” he said about his first days back at home with Molly. “She had me backed in the corner, jumping up, barking at me. I was like, ‘I don’t know what to do! I’m stuck in the corner!’ So I got her calmed down and in the kennel and I called Erik.”
It would take time to build a bond between the two. The first time Molly needed a bath, Jensen was hesitant.
“I got her in the bathtub and she gave me this look that said, ‘No, I don’t think we’ll do that,’” he said. “So I ended up paying $50 to have her bathed.”
While he spoke about their early days together, Molly rested her head on the laptop in the police vehicle as he scratched her head.
“It’s a bond that most won’t understand and only few will know, and that’s the bond between a handler and their K-9,” Jensen said. “We protect each other.”
While Molly is capable of being an attack dog, that’s a big misconception about K-9s, according to her handler.
“She’s not an attack dog, she’s not a bite dog,” he said. “Sure, she does bite, but really she’s a patrol dog. Maybe the misconception is part of the culture that people grew up with.”
Part of the pack
K-9s such as Molly aren’t just working dogs. For their handlers, they’re part of the family.
Jensen, who has another dog at home, said as soon as he dons his uniform, Molly won’t leave his side.
“You’re with the dog 24/7. You form this really special bond,” he said. “We went on vacation for 10 days. That was the longest I’ve been away from her. The guy who was taking care of her said, ‘She looks for you every day.’”
The bond goes both ways, and Jensen’s commitment to the dog is evident. He sells challenge coins and stuffed “Molly” dolls and the proceeds go entirely back into funding training and equipment for Molly, from ballistic vests to dog earmuffs for live-fire training.
The community also has welcomed Molly as a member of its larger family.
Jensen said the community support for Molly has been tremendous. Employees at Walmart pitched in $900 to the program as a Christmas gift. Jensen was lost for words because of the generosity, and he was able to buy the special earmuffs for her.
Locals aren’t the only ones keeping up on Molly. Her Instagram page, which Jensen runs, boasts nearly 2,000 followers, some as far-flung as Germany, Australia and Portugal. He mostly post snippets of the K-9’s daily life — one video shows Molly barking to the chorus of Hanson’s “MMMBop.”
Molly also has had a positive effect on Jensen, who said becoming her handler changed his life.
“When I got Molly, it was like a recharge,” Jenson said. “I love coming to work. I love it when my phone rings and it’s dispatch. Whether it’s 1 or 3 in the morning, it doesn’t matter, I’m like, ‘This is go time.’”
And that is just what they train for.