Dakota Visits Summer School

By Laurie Borst

On Thursday morning, July 27, Dakota, a state police patrol and narcotics canine, visited students attending a summer school program at Reed Intermediate School. Jason Cassavechia is a state police canine handler.

Officer Cassavechia, a six-year veteran on the state police force, and Dakota have been together four and a half years.

Dakota is a cross-trained dog. He has been trained to find missing persons and to sniff out drugs. Officer Cassavechia explained to the students that most of the calls he and Dakota go on are to find missing people in state forests or on other state properties.

The pair is also called on to back-up officers on violent calls and for the execution of search warrants. Dakota’s biggest narcotics find occurred in Branford when he sniffed out six kilograms of cocaine in a tractor-trailer.

“Dakota is with me 24/7. At home, Dakota is part of the family,” the officer said. “But when I put on the uniform, Dakota knows it is time to go to work.” Officer Cassavechia is married, with a child on the way. They work the night shift out of Troop A in Southbury.

“Dakota responds to both voice commands and hand signals,” Officer Cassavechia explained. He proceeded to demonstrate for the students how Dakota obeys the various commands.

“The State of Connecticut purchased Dakota from a breeder in Hungary,” Officer Cassavechia said. “Usually, police dogs are donated animals.”

When Dakota was shipped over from Europe, he was nervous in his cage. He chewed on the cage, chipping some of his teeth. Officer Cassavechia pulled back Dakota’s lip to show he had to have some removed, but his large canine fang had a silver cap on it.

“All of the state police dogs are male. It helps in the training room if all the dogs are male,” Officer Cassevechia explained. “It cuts down on distractions. Some local police departments have female dogs, but the state dogs are all males.”

Dakota is a six-year-old German shepherd. Police dogs usually retire around eight or nine years of age. When he retires, he will stay with Officer Cassavechia as the family pet.