WATERBORO — A 4-year-old Belgian Malinois is getting lots of “atta boys” for successfully finding a woman who had gone missing from her home.

Ibo and his handler, Trooper Adam Schmidt, went into the woods Sept. 23 to help find a mental health patient who had been reported missing from an assisted living residence, according to Maine State Police.

And the dog’s training proved itself.

After a nearly two-mile track, Ibo found the woman hiding behind a shed on a tote road. She was uninjured.

Ibo is a dual-purpose K9, a graduate of a 14-week patrol school and an eight-week narcotics school, both held at the Maine Criminal Justice Academy in Vassalboro. He goes back two days a month for continued training, said Sgt. Scott Dalton of the MSP K-9 Unit.

He’s been teamed with Schmidt for almost two years. It’s a 24-7 commitment for both man and dog, as they work and live together.

Ibo has been trained to find missing people, find evidence at crime scenes, sniff out illegal drugs, and can take down a violent fugitive on the run, said Schmidt.

On Friday, Ibo was called into service to find the missing Waterboro woman. The York County Sheriff ’s Office and the Maine Warden Service were looking for her and asked for assistance, according to state police accounts. Schmidt used a pillowcase on which the woman had slept to provide the scent, and told Ibo to track.

The dog obliged.

“Ibo can do a lot of great jobs,” said Schmidt. “It’s really cool what he can do.”

Statewide, Maine State Police has 25 K-9 teams – not only patrol and drug dogs, but K9s that are specially trained to sniff out bombs and cadavers, Dalton said. Troop A has two K9s: Ibo and Champ, who is handled by Sgt. Jeremy Forbes.

“Essentially, you never stop training,” said Dalton, adding that the dogs are certified for their tasks annually.

There are other police agencies in York County with police dogs, along with some that used to have them and no longer do, or are just getting back to employing a K9 after not having one for a while. Those who have made the decision not to have them says it comes down to budget constraints.

Sanford police had a K9 for many years, but after the dog retired, Police Chief Thomas Connolly performed a cost-benefit analysis and found the expense too great.

“It came down to use, and does that justify the expense,” said Connolly. “It’s not the dog, it’s the training.”

Connolly said costs to replace an officer who is the K9 handler on a shift when the monthly training rolls around can run to just under $500 a month if the animal is trained both in narcotics and patrol. Add in food, veterinary bills and the overtime hours that the handler gets for caring for the dog at home, Connolly said, and costs mount.

“It doesn’t add up,” he said.

Sheriff Bill King said Deputy Dustin Comeau is currently undergoing training with a dog called Macey specifically to do drug detection at York County Jail. Years ago, the Sheriff ’s Office employed a patrol dog as well, but King said this animal will be used solely to sniff out drugs smuggled into the jail. He also cited the expense involved.

“It’s cost-prohibitive for budgets,” King said.

In Wells, Police Chief Jo-Ann Putnam has budgeted $9,000 for the two K9s employed by the department: Jagger, handled by Lt. Kevin Chabot, and Proxy, handled by Sgt. Adam Shaw.

One dog is trained for drugs only, while the other is trained for patrol and will soon undergo drug detection training, Putnam said. The dogs undergo training one day a week, so the officer handler is off the regular schedule.

“The dogs are valuable in many ways; they do the work of several officers when it comes to finding lost children or elderly folks when they wander off, when suspects take off on foot they are able to locate them much quicker, when the dog is present offenders tend not to get physical with the officers, so the likelihood of injuries is less,” said Putnam in an email. “The drug dogs can locate drugs that can be hidden in vehicle and not in plain view of officers.”

In Biddeford, Deputy Chief JoAnne Fisk said Harry, a golden retriever originally destined for the Boston Police Department, is in training for drug detection with Officer Kyle Cutler. The Boston department could not fund the dog because of budget issues, so Harry was offered to the Biddeford department.

Harry, who has already made himself popular in Biddeford – for example, he recently hung out with folks when the Stanley Cup came to town – won’t be going on patrol. He will be used strictly for drug detection, and for making himself known to the public.

“He has quite the personality,” said Fisk. “He loves people. And kids love him.”

— Senior Staff Writer Tammy Wells can be contacted at 282-1535, ext. 327 or twells@journaltribune.com.