Horse Palace Donates Money For Three New Cheyenne Police K9s

The Horse Palace Swan Ranch has donated $33,000 to pay for three new Cheyenne Police K9s to replace three veteran police dogs who will be retiring soon

The donation was announced at a news conference at the Cheyenne Public Safety Building on Friday afternoon.

Nick Hughes is the President and Managing Partner for Pacesetter Racing and Gaming, which owns the Horse Palace. He told Townsquare Media that the donation grew out of a conversation he had with Cheyenne Mayor Patrick Collins a couple of months ago.  Hughes said he asked the mayor what the company could do for Laramie County. ''And it was his idea" said Hughes. ''He said we have three dogs that are going to be retiring." The mayor said replacing the dogs would be expensive "and perhaps you might think about donating for one,'' Hughes quotes the mayor as saying. "And we said no, we'll do all three. So that is what today is about."

Acquiring, Training New K9s Takes Several Months

Townsquare Media asked Officer Lisa Koeppel, the handler of K9 Officer Tyler about the process for acquiring and training police dogs..

She says it's a fairly lengthy process, starting with the acquisition of ''green dogs" with no training, usually between a year and a year and a half old. They will likely begin training early next year, a process that takes three or four months. The dogs go through training with the officer who will be their handler. The dogs might be certified as K9 officers around May of 2025.

The new dogs will replace three of the four existing police K9s, with one dog who is already in service continuing to work with police.