September 2, 2025 • 9 mins
WANT TO SUPPORT LAW ENFORCEMENT DOGS? This weekend is the Annual Rex Run for Pawsitivity in Arapahoe County and it's a super event that raises money for all manner of stuff to support the hard working dogs of law enforcement. I do this just so I get to see a dog in the studio when Deputy John Gray from Arapahoe County will bring in Rex to say hello. Find out more about him and other therapy dogs at the race this weekend by clicking here.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Deputy John Gray of the Arapao County Sheriff's Department and
his faithful companion, Rex. You, by the way, is now
my faithful companion. Rex has taken up residents right by
my feet. He is the cutest little black lab, fun, fun,
action packed little Dogma. How old is he now, John.
Speaker 2 (00:19):
He's going to turn five in March, so he's about
four and a half.
Speaker 1 (00:21):
He still has a lot of energy for a almost
five year old. You're supposed to be more mature. Rex.
What does Rex do for the Sheriff's Department?
Speaker 2 (00:29):
So? Rex is a multipurpose dog.
Speaker 3 (00:32):
So his full time job is he works with me
as a school resource officer, and we're assigned to elementary schools,
and so he comes and works as a therapy dog
with me in the schools.
Speaker 2 (00:41):
But he's also an explosive detection dog. Oh wow.
Speaker 3 (00:44):
And then he can track for missing people too. WHOA yeah, h.
Speaker 1 (00:48):
You little multitasker is.
Speaker 3 (00:50):
A He's a talented fellow. He has set the precedence
for us, you know, and that's how we were able
to really get a lot of other dogs.
Speaker 1 (00:56):
I was going to say, because when I first met
you guys, I mean wasn't he one of the first
ones or was he the first?
Speaker 2 (01:02):
He was the first dog to work in Colorado as
in that dual purpose capacity, so not only is just
a therapy dog but also able to do detection work
and find We started with firearms and then we branched
onto all explosives.
Speaker 1 (01:16):
Rex, I get it, man. We're all doing more jobs
than we used to pal for no more money either,
so just get used to it. How many dogs when
you guys we were just talking off the air and
you were talking about the fact that Rex's family line
is now a huge part of the sheriff's apartment, like
a lot of your dogs are related.
Speaker 3 (01:32):
Yeah, So we have a team of five and all
of them are related, and four of them do the
exact same job. So we have four of our dogs
that are bomb dogs, therapy dogs, and three of them track,
and then we also have an electronics detection dog, which
is actually Rex's brothers. So, like you said, a family affairs,
we have some brothers, and then we have a couple
(01:54):
of our dogs are their nephews, but they're actually littermates.
And then we have another one other dogs kind of
like a so if you look at their lineage. It's
kind of cool to see that we've taken five of
them from eight weeks old and basically train them all
into the police dog line.
Speaker 1 (02:10):
Is that on purpose because Rex's personality is so suited
to this kind of stuff, or is it? I mean,
do you kind of do that once you find you
have a good dog, maybe say, well, maybe see if
we can get some more out of this bloodline, because
I mean, anyone with hunting dogs will tell you that
bloodline matters.
Speaker 2 (02:24):
Oh definitely.
Speaker 3 (02:25):
And while you can never say one hundred percent that
every hunting dog will be a champion hunting dog, you
can definitely stack the stack the cards, right, And so
for us, we just found some really good bloodline hunting dogs.
Speaker 1 (02:39):
Now waiting for a deputy to throw his toy for him.
He's Rex is just backing up as dogs do, like
I'm waiting. I'm waiting. Oh now we're gonna play tags.
Speaker 2 (02:48):
Stop.
Speaker 1 (02:48):
Yeah, So what is the difference or is it just training?
When you say three of the dogs can also track
if they're looking for someone, Is that just a matter
of additional training or do some dogs proof to not
necessarily be great for that? How is that decision making process.
Speaker 3 (03:04):
Yeah, a lot of it's training, I mean, and sure
different dogs have you know, different levels of drive, but
it all just boils down to, you know, how how
we train them. So all dogs can track, right, and
they use that skill to find food or sticks to
chew on or whatever. It's just teaching them to do
it when we want them to do it. That's the
tricky part, right, And so absolutely, Yeah, we put them
(03:26):
to you know, to a basically a sixteen week school
that they went to, and we actually are the ones
that we train them, right, And so we had to
work with a trainer and we're the hands on trainers
with the dog as they give us guidance. And so
it's a cool process to see them really kind of
learn how to use that skill more effectively. But to
(03:47):
be able to find a child who you know, maybe
has autism and wandered away from school, right, you know,
that's a huge concern of ours, especially with you have
bodies of water or things like that that are dangerous, right.
And then we have a lot of people that unfortunately
have dementia and go missing too. Yeah, and so for
that ability to you know, literally footstep for you know,
(04:09):
footstep track that person is super helpful.
Speaker 1 (04:12):
So I think, and I remember I pulled this out
of fit air, or I remembered it from somewhere. They
either have like four forty thousand times more sensitive sniff
than we do, or four hundred thousand. There's smell receptors
are dramatically higher.
Speaker 2 (04:28):
It's crazy.
Speaker 3 (04:29):
I like to use the analogy just because it's easy
for people to visualize. We as people can smell a
teaspoon of sugar in a cup of coffee. A dog
can smell that in two Olympic swimming pools.
Speaker 1 (04:40):
Oh holy cow.
Speaker 3 (04:41):
So their noses are just and their nostrils actually work independently,
so we smell and we just smell whatever it is
at once. Right, their nostrils, they can have one passage
that's taking in the smell of the grass, and there
are other nasal passages taking in whatever's on top of it, right,
another dog or whatever, So they smell those two things independently,
(05:03):
which makes them very effective.
Speaker 1 (05:04):
Well, these growing programs with knines that are you know, valuable,
incredibly valuable to law enforcement, they have to be supported,
of course by something, and that's let's talk about the
REX run for positivity. This is the fourth annual REX
Run for Positivity. It's a fun day of dogs and running.
Tell people what's going on here, because I know you've
done this before.
Speaker 3 (05:25):
Yeah, So this event is you know, it's obviously inspired
by Rex, but it's really all about the dogs. So
the purpose of the event. It's a five k run
walk family event. So even if nobody wants to in
your family wants to run, you can come out and
just see the dogs and kind of learn more about them.
We do demonstrations with them. We have a live auction
(05:46):
as a there's tons of stuff for kids to do.
But the event is all to raise money for the dogs, right,
So we have equipment needs a lot of times. Our
equipment breaks down fast like that. Yeah, I mean even
is like leashes, right, Our leashes breakdown fast and as
she gets pulled across the room, so you know it's
(06:07):
and and training aids too, So we do a lot
of detection training with the dogs, and so we need
we need training aids to do that well. And so
all this stuff comes at a cost. And dogs do
silly things sometimes they have medical expenses, and I think
people sometimes overlook how valuable their donation or even just
coming to the Rex run is right and say, you know,
(06:29):
I always just say it's really good to come out
and meet the dogs and to see what they do
and to see why it's it's important to support it.
You know, it's it's cool to be a you know,
to see where your money goes, it's really cool.
Speaker 1 (06:40):
So where is this event?
Speaker 3 (06:42):
So it's at the Arapo County Fairgrounds on September sixth,
and it goes from seven to noon. And like I said,
you get if you registered to do the runner the walk,
you can bring your dog. It's a dog friendly event.
Speaker 1 (06:54):
So can I'm going to add something to that. If
your dog is remotely well trained, you can bring your
dog to this event. If you have a reactive or
aggressive dog, this might not be the event for you.
I'm just going to say.
Speaker 3 (07:04):
And if you show up, your dog obviously has to
be on a six foot leash, you know. And but
there's it's the cool thing is it's a really big area.
There's plenty of space for you to have your dog
out there. We have lots of cool things that I
think are cool for the dogs. You know, last time
we were out there, the dogs I think just enjoyed
walking the trail right to where the five k.
Speaker 1 (07:23):
Actually really it's traditional five k in the sense you're
not road racing. It's more of a trail race. I
just saw that on the website.
Speaker 3 (07:29):
Yeah, it's actually really cool. I mean, and it's you're
not doing laps. It's one continuous track, which I think
is a little bit.
Speaker 2 (07:37):
I like that.
Speaker 3 (07:38):
Yeah, and so and you know, like I said, if
if people aren't wanting to to run or to walk,
they can still you can even bring your dog and
you can get them sworn in by the sheriff as
an honorary deputy.
Speaker 2 (07:52):
That's so cute, you know. It's uh, you get a
little badge.
Speaker 3 (07:55):
Yeah, they get a little badge, a little certificate, and
the and the sheriff does a swearing in ceremony.
Speaker 2 (08:00):
It's kind of fun. So oh, I love it.
Speaker 3 (08:03):
We just you know, and we love meeting people that
support the dogs. There's a lot of people that I
think throughout the year they make donations or things like that.
But it's just a fun opportunity for people to actually
interact with the dogs.
Speaker 1 (08:13):
So now I'm not saying that Rex is not still
adorable at the rifle of age at five, but I
just saw canine Riley is Riley still that.
Speaker 3 (08:20):
Little Unfortunately they are all grown up now, but you
know it's so hard to it's when they're lab puppies
like that.
Speaker 2 (08:28):
He just it's hardy, Mandy.
Speaker 1 (08:32):
I was today years old when I learned that dogs
smell in stereo. That's from our text line. One last question,
Deputy John Gray with us at what age do you
start that intensive training.
Speaker 3 (08:41):
So we actually bring them to work literally at eight
weeks old, and we can start developing.
Speaker 1 (08:46):
Those disruptive co workers whatever.
Speaker 3 (08:48):
You know. Yeah, especially when people see a canine car
and then outcomes like a tiny right, they're like, what is.
Speaker 2 (08:54):
That dog going to do?
Speaker 3 (08:55):
But but yeah, it's it's kind of a neat opportunity
for us to to really at the dog comfortable in
a lot of different environments, which is unique. Right, So
when I can say, hey, we can bring the dog
to the schools, we can bring them into our community
and do all these things. By the time they're this old,
they're so socialized that we're really comfortable in a multitude
of situations.
Speaker 1 (09:15):
I have all the information about the REX run for
positivity and Deputy John Gray, great to see you again
as well. You hit some devil Rex. You can find
all this on the blog. Go ahead and sign up.
It's this weekend, but if you sign up ahead of time,
that way you make sure that you get all the
stuff on the website. Rexrun dot com, rexerun dot com.
(09:35):
Good to see you, man,
Deputy John Gray of the Arapao County Sheriff's Department and
his faithful companion, Rex. You, by the way, is now
my faithful companion. Rex has taken up residents right by
my feet. He is the cutest little black lab, fun, fun,
action packed little Dogma. How old is he now, John.
Speaker 2 (00:19):
He's going to turn five in March, so he's about
four and a half.
Speaker 1 (00:21):
He still has a lot of energy for a almost
five year old. You're supposed to be more mature. Rex.
What does Rex do for the Sheriff's Department?
Speaker 2 (00:29):
So? Rex is a multipurpose dog.
Speaker 3 (00:32):
So his full time job is he works with me
as a school resource officer, and we're assigned to elementary schools,
and so he comes and works as a therapy dog
with me in the schools.
Speaker 2 (00:41):
But he's also an explosive detection dog. Oh wow.
Speaker 3 (00:44):
And then he can track for missing people too. WHOA yeah, h.
Speaker 1 (00:48):
You little multitasker is.
Speaker 3 (00:50):
A He's a talented fellow. He has set the precedence
for us, you know, and that's how we were able
to really get a lot of other dogs.
Speaker 1 (00:56):
I was going to say, because when I first met
you guys, I mean wasn't he one of the first
ones or was he the first?
Speaker 2 (01:02):
He was the first dog to work in Colorado as
in that dual purpose capacity, so not only is just
a therapy dog but also able to do detection work
and find We started with firearms and then we branched
onto all explosives.
Speaker 1 (01:16):
Rex, I get it, man. We're all doing more jobs
than we used to pal for no more money either,
so just get used to it. How many dogs when
you guys we were just talking off the air and
you were talking about the fact that Rex's family line
is now a huge part of the sheriff's apartment, like
a lot of your dogs are related.
Speaker 3 (01:32):
Yeah, So we have a team of five and all
of them are related, and four of them do the
exact same job. So we have four of our dogs
that are bomb dogs, therapy dogs, and three of them track,
and then we also have an electronics detection dog, which
is actually Rex's brothers. So, like you said, a family affairs,
we have some brothers, and then we have a couple
(01:54):
of our dogs are their nephews, but they're actually littermates.
And then we have another one other dogs kind of
like a so if you look at their lineage. It's
kind of cool to see that we've taken five of
them from eight weeks old and basically train them all
into the police dog line.
Speaker 1 (02:10):
Is that on purpose because Rex's personality is so suited
to this kind of stuff, or is it? I mean,
do you kind of do that once you find you
have a good dog, maybe say, well, maybe see if
we can get some more out of this bloodline, because
I mean, anyone with hunting dogs will tell you that
bloodline matters.
Speaker 2 (02:24):
Oh definitely.
Speaker 3 (02:25):
And while you can never say one hundred percent that
every hunting dog will be a champion hunting dog, you
can definitely stack the stack the cards, right, And so
for us, we just found some really good bloodline hunting dogs.
Speaker 1 (02:39):
Now waiting for a deputy to throw his toy for him.
He's Rex is just backing up as dogs do, like
I'm waiting. I'm waiting. Oh now we're gonna play tags.
Speaker 2 (02:48):
Stop.
Speaker 1 (02:48):
Yeah, So what is the difference or is it just training?
When you say three of the dogs can also track
if they're looking for someone, Is that just a matter
of additional training or do some dogs proof to not
necessarily be great for that? How is that decision making process.
Speaker 3 (03:04):
Yeah, a lot of it's training, I mean, and sure
different dogs have you know, different levels of drive, but
it all just boils down to, you know, how how
we train them. So all dogs can track, right, and
they use that skill to find food or sticks to
chew on or whatever. It's just teaching them to do
it when we want them to do it. That's the
tricky part, right, And so absolutely, Yeah, we put them
(03:26):
to you know, to a basically a sixteen week school
that they went to, and we actually are the ones
that we train them, right, And so we had to
work with a trainer and we're the hands on trainers
with the dog as they give us guidance. And so
it's a cool process to see them really kind of
learn how to use that skill more effectively. But to
(03:47):
be able to find a child who you know, maybe
has autism and wandered away from school, right, you know,
that's a huge concern of ours, especially with you have
bodies of water or things like that that are dangerous, right.
And then we have a lot of people that unfortunately
have dementia and go missing too. Yeah, and so for
that ability to you know, literally footstep for you know,
(04:09):
footstep track that person is super helpful.
Speaker 1 (04:12):
So I think, and I remember I pulled this out
of fit air, or I remembered it from somewhere. They
either have like four forty thousand times more sensitive sniff
than we do, or four hundred thousand. There's smell receptors
are dramatically higher.
Speaker 2 (04:28):
It's crazy.
Speaker 3 (04:29):
I like to use the analogy just because it's easy
for people to visualize. We as people can smell a
teaspoon of sugar in a cup of coffee. A dog
can smell that in two Olympic swimming pools.
Speaker 1 (04:40):
Oh holy cow.
Speaker 3 (04:41):
So their noses are just and their nostrils actually work independently,
so we smell and we just smell whatever it is
at once. Right, their nostrils, they can have one passage
that's taking in the smell of the grass, and there
are other nasal passages taking in whatever's on top of it, right,
another dog or whatever, So they smell those two things independently,
(05:03):
which makes them very effective.
Speaker 1 (05:04):
Well, these growing programs with knines that are you know, valuable,
incredibly valuable to law enforcement, they have to be supported,
of course by something, and that's let's talk about the
REX run for positivity. This is the fourth annual REX
Run for Positivity. It's a fun day of dogs and running.
Tell people what's going on here, because I know you've
done this before.
Speaker 3 (05:25):
Yeah, So this event is you know, it's obviously inspired
by Rex, but it's really all about the dogs. So
the purpose of the event. It's a five k run
walk family event. So even if nobody wants to in
your family wants to run, you can come out and
just see the dogs and kind of learn more about them.
We do demonstrations with them. We have a live auction
(05:46):
as a there's tons of stuff for kids to do.
But the event is all to raise money for the dogs, right,
So we have equipment needs a lot of times. Our
equipment breaks down fast like that. Yeah, I mean even
is like leashes, right, Our leashes breakdown fast and as
she gets pulled across the room, so you know it's
(06:07):
and and training aids too, So we do a lot
of detection training with the dogs, and so we need
we need training aids to do that well. And so
all this stuff comes at a cost. And dogs do
silly things sometimes they have medical expenses, and I think
people sometimes overlook how valuable their donation or even just
coming to the Rex run is right and say, you know,
(06:29):
I always just say it's really good to come out
and meet the dogs and to see what they do
and to see why it's it's important to support it.
You know, it's it's cool to be a you know,
to see where your money goes, it's really cool.
Speaker 1 (06:40):
So where is this event?
Speaker 3 (06:42):
So it's at the Arapo County Fairgrounds on September sixth,
and it goes from seven to noon. And like I said,
you get if you registered to do the runner the walk,
you can bring your dog. It's a dog friendly event.
Speaker 1 (06:54):
So can I'm going to add something to that. If
your dog is remotely well trained, you can bring your
dog to this event. If you have a reactive or
aggressive dog, this might not be the event for you.
I'm just going to say.
Speaker 3 (07:04):
And if you show up, your dog obviously has to
be on a six foot leash, you know. And but
there's it's the cool thing is it's a really big area.
There's plenty of space for you to have your dog
out there. We have lots of cool things that I
think are cool for the dogs. You know, last time
we were out there, the dogs I think just enjoyed
walking the trail right to where the five k.
Speaker 1 (07:23):
Actually really it's traditional five k in the sense you're
not road racing. It's more of a trail race. I
just saw that on the website.
Speaker 3 (07:29):
Yeah, it's actually really cool. I mean, and it's you're
not doing laps. It's one continuous track, which I think
is a little bit.
Speaker 2 (07:37):
I like that.
Speaker 3 (07:38):
Yeah, and so and you know, like I said, if
if people aren't wanting to to run or to walk,
they can still you can even bring your dog and
you can get them sworn in by the sheriff as
an honorary deputy.
Speaker 2 (07:52):
That's so cute, you know. It's uh, you get a
little badge.
Speaker 3 (07:55):
Yeah, they get a little badge, a little certificate, and
the and the sheriff does a swearing in ceremony.
Speaker 2 (08:00):
It's kind of fun. So oh, I love it.
Speaker 3 (08:03):
We just you know, and we love meeting people that
support the dogs. There's a lot of people that I
think throughout the year they make donations or things like that.
But it's just a fun opportunity for people to actually
interact with the dogs.
Speaker 1 (08:13):
So now I'm not saying that Rex is not still
adorable at the rifle of age at five, but I
just saw canine Riley is Riley still that.
Speaker 3 (08:20):
Little Unfortunately they are all grown up now, but you
know it's so hard to it's when they're lab puppies
like that.
Speaker 2 (08:28):
He just it's hardy, Mandy.
Speaker 1 (08:32):
I was today years old when I learned that dogs
smell in stereo. That's from our text line. One last question,
Deputy John Gray with us at what age do you
start that intensive training.
Speaker 3 (08:41):
So we actually bring them to work literally at eight
weeks old, and we can start developing.
Speaker 1 (08:46):
Those disruptive co workers whatever.
Speaker 3 (08:48):
You know. Yeah, especially when people see a canine car
and then outcomes like a tiny right, they're like, what is.
Speaker 2 (08:54):
That dog going to do?
Speaker 3 (08:55):
But but yeah, it's it's kind of a neat opportunity
for us to to really at the dog comfortable in
a lot of different environments, which is unique. Right, So
when I can say, hey, we can bring the dog
to the schools, we can bring them into our community
and do all these things. By the time they're this old,
they're so socialized that we're really comfortable in a multitude
of situations.
Speaker 1 (09:15):
I have all the information about the REX run for
positivity and Deputy John Gray, great to see you again
as well. You hit some devil Rex. You can find
all this on the blog. Go ahead and sign up.
It's this weekend, but if you sign up ahead of time,
that way you make sure that you get all the
stuff on the website. Rexrun dot com, rexerun dot com.
(09:35):
Good to see you, man,
The Mandy Connell Podcast News
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