When Brian Zupke became Sheriff of the Ashland County Sheriff’s Department, he made it a goal to bring in another deputy K-9 officer to the team.

Two years later, Sheriff Zupke has added sixteen-month-old Doc to his deputy roster.

“Within the last six months, we started planning for ordering a dog. We paid for it, and we selected a k-9 deputy that was interested,” said Zupke.

Deputy Andrew Seitz is Doc’s handler, a two-year member of Ashland County Sheriff’s Department. Having worked alongside other K-9 teams in his previous role with the Wisconsin State Patrol, becoming a handler also became a goal for Seitz.

“I was ecstatic just for the fact of, you know, inter-addiction’s been something that I’ve always did with the county and with the state and just having the process be able to be at my fingertips,” said Seitz.

“It was an opportunity for us to get one and help fight the epidemic of drugs on the streets,” said Zupke.

The drug epidemic is one that hits close to home for Deputy Seitz.

“Growing up in this community is, you know, it’s so it’s my community as well. And we’ve seen the effects of the narcotics in this community. And, you know, just getting it at bay and being able to take it up to take more off of the streets and making it safer,” said Seitz.

With the addition of K-9 Doc, Ashland County is one step further in reducing drug activity.

“You know, eventually getting out onto the road so that way we can, you know, start getting narcotics and things off the streets like that,” said Seitz.

Deputy Seitz and Doc will be heading to their sixteen-week training course in February, and after graduation will begin patrolling.