{"id":26285,"date":"2024-08-03T11:00:00","date_gmt":"2024-08-03T11:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/k-9-ozzy-ends-his-watch-with-la-plata-county-sheriffs-office\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T05:36:55","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T05:36:55","slug":"k-9-ozzy-ends-his-watch-with-la-plata-county-sheriffs-office","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/k-9-ozzy-ends-his-watch-with-la-plata-county-sheriffs-office\/","title":{"rendered":"K-9 Ozzy ends his watch with La Plata County Sheriff\u2019s Office"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"La
La Plata County Sheriffs Office K-9 Deputy Cody Hawman with his K-9, Ozzy, on Friday during Ozzy\u2019s last day as a patrol and narcotics certified police K-9 before retiring to a life on the couch and fishing. (Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

In a page-out to law enforcement, a 911 dispatcher marked the end of duty for Ozzy, a 7-year-old K-9 who ended his career Friday with the La Plata County Sheriff\u2019s Office.<\/p>\n

Ozzy spent his five-year career along his handler, K-9 Deputy Cody Hawman.<\/p>\n

Hawman said it would be an emotional goodbye, but his wife and young son will be glad to have Ozzy at home more often.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s my partner, he\u2019s my best friend, he comes to work with me, to live with me; I spend more time with him than with anyone,\u201d Hawman said.<\/p>\n

\"K-9
K-9 Deputy Cody Hawman showing his love and appreciation for his K-9, Ozzy. (Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Ozzy served as a patrol and narcotics certified dual-purpose police K-9. He and Hawman have over 120 deployments together assisting seven different local agencies and resulting in over 50 arrests. Hawman said Ozzy\u2019s specialty is tracking drugs, evidence and people with his powerful nose. Across his career, Ozzy helped seize over 20 pounds of illegal narcotics.<\/p>\n

Hawman said Ozzy will be missed at the sheriff\u2019s office, especially by Fenix and Sali, the other two police K-9s on the force.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople love dogs at work, and so I think he\u2019s going to be missed by all of the employees at the Sheriff\u2019s Office,\u201d Hawman said.<\/p>\n

Ozzy, 7, is a Czech Republic-born German Shepard purchased by the Sheriff\u2019s Office from Rocky Mountain Canine Academy. Ozzy officially belonged to the Sheriff\u2019s Office until Friday, when Hawman formally adopted him.<\/p>\n

\"K-9
K-9 Deputy Cody Hawman playing with his Ozzy. (Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

After spending over 28 dog years going to work with him every day, Hawman said Ozzy plans to spend his retirement sitting on the couch, fishing at Haviland Lake and running alongside four-wheelers with his family.<\/p>\n

Hawman said the Sheriff\u2019s Office uses police K-9s as \u201canother tool in their tool belt\u201d for enforcing the law. \u201cThey can smell a lot better than we can and alert us to things like human odor, narcotic odor, evidence in a field,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Hawman said police K-9s provide a nonlethal use of force that can help de-escalate situations with suspects after other avenues have failed, keeping law enforcement and suspects safer.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen going hands-on doesn\u2019t work, tasing doesn\u2019t work, they\u2019re still fighting us, we can get a dog and then the dog bites and the person finally surrenders,\u201d Hawman said. \u201cSo we have another tool to try to successfully take someone into custody with the least force used as necessary.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"K-9
K-9 Deputy Cody Hawman standing with his K-9, Ozzy inside the La Plata County Sheriff\u2019s Office. (Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Hawman said the Sheriff\u2019s Office funds its K-9 Unit using donations from the National Police Dog Foundation, an organization that raises funds to purchase, train and provide veterinary care to police K-9s.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe want to let the public know that Ozzy completed a successful, fruitful career because he\u2019s their dog,\u201d Hawman said. \u201cThe dogs are funded off public donations \u2013 their donations purchased Ozzy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hawman\u2019s father, Chuck Hawman, owns Durango Animal Hospital and also performs veterinary care on the police K-9s for free, so Ozzy will continue to enjoy free veterinary care in retirement, Hawman said.<\/p>\n

Hawman said it will be bittersweet going back to work without Ozzy. He\u2019s happy that his partner gets to finally relax and enjoy his golden years, but it will be lonely sitting by himself in the patrol car.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019ll still be my best friend, and I get to look forward to coming home to hangout with him,\u201d Hawman said.<\/p>\n

nmetcalf@durnagoherald.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

\"K-9
K-9 Deputy Cody Hawman playing tug-of-war with his K-9, Ozzy. (Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"K-9
K-9 Ozzy\u2019s fluffy hair and La Plata County Sheriff\u2019s Office collar. (Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Shepard spent five years alongside his handler, Cody Hawman<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":26286,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[28,1194],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-26285","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-headlines","tag-la-plata-county-sheriffs-office"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26285","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26285"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26285\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":79297,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26285\/revisions\/79297"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26286"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26285"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26285"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26285"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=26285"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}