 What makes for excellence in heart care? It starts with one of the most amazing teams of heart surgeons and cardiologists that I've seen assembled under one roof and the region's leading technology in a new $40 million facility. This is the nationally recognized Heart and Vascular Institute of Eastern Kentucky at Pikeville Medical Center. Following the shooting in Allen, June 30th, which resulted in the death of several officers and canine Drago, the Floyd County Sheriff's Office was left without a canine officer. In December, that changed when the Sheriff's Department introduced their newest canine officer, Bear. A dog is a big part of our everyday business here. Without a dog, the people notice it, we notice it, the drug business, people can tell it. So it's a great tool for us, and we feel like we have to have one. But we also have a desire to love for the dog too. We know the dog is a full service for us. It's a very secure and provides a lot of safety for our deputies. And that's a real big goal for me is something that I can give these deputies to give them some safety. And when a dog can go in first before a deputy does and make sure that there's no bad guy in there that gives it clear as a room for them, that's good for me. That's what we want is somewhere that allows it to be safer for the deputies. And a bad guy runs, that's what a dog is for. Canine Bear specializes in apprehension, tracking, and drug sniffing. In addition to the new canine officer, the department has hired several new deputies. This will help us get back to some normalcy, you know, our dogs and put back on our staff, and we're working to get our way up to where we were, you know, pre-tragedy. And, you know, I know the public's been very patient with us to an extent, you know, but they know we're trying to get back. We're trying to get our dogs back in service. We've hired a couple deputies. They're in training, one's in training cap. So I'm still a little short staffed, but we're working there. We're getting people back in service. So with our dogs now and getting more trained deputies, we'll be back at full service here. The department is in the process of training a second canine officer who will join the department in early spring. The second canine will be assigned to Deputy Dustin Newsom, Drago's former handler. Reporting for Mountain Top News, I'm Brianna Robinson.