Students at Villari's of Williamstown, flanked by instructors Nathan Sumner, left, and Deborah Huether, give Millie a round of applause at the end of her visit.
Millie serves in the Bennington County Sheriff's Department.
WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — Villari's of Williamstown teaches karate to kids and adults to help them stand on their own two feet.
On Saturday, some of those students got to meet a new friend who stands on four feet.
Millie, a German shepherd who serves with the Bennington County Sheriff's Department in Vermont, and her handler, Sgt. Joel Howard, came to Villari's studio to thank the students for raising $1,050 to purchase a protective vest. The vest, from Vested Interest In K-9s, is both bullet-proof and knife-proof to help protect Millie while she finds missing people, sniffs out drugs and tracks suspects on the run.
In fact, the students "blew by" the $1,050 goal, said Nathan Sumner, the master instructor/manager of Villari's, raising more than $1,300 through a bottle drive, seminars and some other donations. The extra money also will go to Vested Interest to help the next dog in line for a special vest.
"They have a list of dogs who are in need of a vest," said Sumner, who is no stranger to introducing community service into his studio, regularly running food drives around Thanksgiving and toy drives around Christmas.
Now, thanks to the Villari's family, Millie will be fitted for her vest this June, keeping her safe as she serves the Bennington County community.
"I appreciate it and so does Millie," Howard told the students who came to the studio on Saturday afternoon to meet Millie, a 16-month-old, 85 1/2-pound bundle of enthusiasm and doggie kisses.
And superb discipline: Don't let her friendly nature fool you. Though she patiently allowed many little hands to pet her on Saturday with a cheerfully wagging tail, Millie has gone through rigorous training and is fully certified to serve as a trusted law enforcement partner to Howard. Hopefully that will be eight to 10 years, he said, as long as she stays healthy.
"A dog's natural instincts are to want to hunt. All we do is tune in on them," Howard said. "Millie's very good at tracking."
Howard shared Millie's first tracking experience, when it took her only 4 1/2 minutes to find a surprised suspect who had a half-hour head start.
"It was amazing," he said. "He didn't think we'd find him."
When she's not working, Millie lives with Howard and his wife and another dog, a Labrador. One karate student wanted to know if the other dog is jealous of the obviously close bond Howard and Millie share.
"They have their moments," said Howard, who added that while Millie understands commands in English, hand language and German, he rarely uses German. "She knows if I yell at her in German she's made me mad."
Millie also likes to listen to country music, and she only eats special dog food, Howard said in response to a student's question about whether Millie has ever had doggie ice cream. And her very favorite thing in the world? Her squeaky tennis ball, a toy that doubles as a reward for completing a task.
"As you can tell, she likes her ball," Howard said as he tossed it down to Millie, who then played with it on the floor of the karate studio as the students giggled. "She's a good girl."
Williamstown.com welcomes critical, respectful dialogue. Name-calling, personal attacks, libel, slander or foul language is not allowed. All comments are reviewed before posting and will be deleted or edited as necessary.
MEMBER SIGN IN
