Doggy detective finds missing Fort Worth police canine

DMN ^ | 1-2-09 | DAN X. McGRAW

[Dysart]

For anyone keeping score at home, here’s the tally: Fort Worth police helicopter: 0, Godiva the search dog: 1.

Fort Worth police officers lost one of their own on New Years Day when Loki, a search and rescue canine, chewed through the fence of his handler’s backyard and escaped into the streets of Fort Worth.

After searching for hours with a helicopter and police cruisers, Fort Worth police called in Godiva, a chocolate Labrador, from Dog Gone Detectives — a firm that specializes in finding lost pets.

Within 15 minutes, Godiva had hunted down Loki about a half mile away from the backyard where he escaped.

“Usually, it isn’t that easy,” said Kat Manning, the co-owner of Dog Gone Detectives. “We got on the trail. Then all of the sudden, I looked up and there he was. He was just hanging out.”

[brytlea]

Piebald and Merle are different genes. Actually, spotting and ticking and roaning are also different genes.

[the OlLine Rebel]

I think I confused terms. There is piebald, but what is usually called merle, they call “dapple”.

[brytlea]

I think in doxies they do call what I think of as merle a dapple. I don’t know if that terminology is used in any other breeds (might be, I’m not sure). Piebald is basically spotted a solid color with white. Extreme white piebald is one of the color patterns that can cause trouble. It’s interesting how somethings are connected. Makes dog breeding very interesting but frustrating. Fortunately in goldens, we dont’ have any of THOSE issues (but we have plenty of other ones).