Reporter's notebook - Courthouse dog, Kasey, in training

CLOVIS — Kasey is a 15-month old golden retriever being groomed to one day work for the 9th Judicial District. But he has a little bit of schooling and growing up to do first.

“He’s still relatively a puppy,” District Attorney Andrea Reeb said of the dog meant to one day work as a therapy animal with the DA’s victim advocate program. “He’s not ready completely. Usually these dogs are 2 to 3 years old before they’re ready for the courthouse.”

Kasey has about a year of training ahead of him, she said Friday.

“We are taking him still to schools and events but he needs his courthouse training,” she said. “He is actually going to go, very shortly, through an interview process with (a school) where all the courthouse dogs in New Mexico go.”

Reeb said she hoped for that screening process to start in the next month, but in any case, she plans to have a dog in his role serving the courts within the year.

“We’ll go through the application process and if for some reason they say Kasey is not a fit for the program, then my intent is just to purchase one fully grown and trained,” she said. “Normally people will buy a $20,000 dog already trained and 2 to 3 years old.”

Here’s hoping Kasey, purchased at 10 percent of that price as a puppy and brought up in Curry County, will be a good boy for the application committee.

— Compiled by Staff Writer David Grieder