The Clallam County Sheriff’s Office is adding a first of its kind specialized K9 therapy team to its law enforcement Chaplaincy program. Chaplain K9 Scout and her handler Chaplain Kathi Gregoire are currently in training to serve as therapy dog team as an additional resource for the sheriff’s office. Scout is a four-year-old mix of various working dog breeds. 

“She is a therapy dog in training and I am her handler. And we’re being trained together that can be utilized through my typical chaplain rounds that I do to the Sheriff’s Office, the State Patrol, other law enforcement agencies, dispatch, which is PenCom, Washington State Patrol radio within the district that I serve and bringing that benefit to them.”

Chaplains provide emotional and spiritual support to law enforcement daily, as well as citizens in the community when there has been a traumatic event. Animals have long been known to ease tension, lower blood pressure, and provide companionship. Chaplain Kathi says she became aware of Scout’s sensitivity when she was very young.

“She has the kind of the un-definable, un-trainable but natural “it.”  She knows how to take care of people as a therapy dog.  You can’t train that in. And she showed that to me and surprised the living daylights out of me to kind of stumble into a situation. And I watched her to kind of work the room, introduce herself to everybody. She wasn’t even three months old yet. And then she settled on a person that had experienced a really traumatic event. And it’s like she just kind of settled on this individual and said, ‘Kathi I’m going to stay with her a while, I’m going to take care of this one. I need to pay attention to that. There’s something unique about this dog”


Chaplain Kathi and Chaplain K9 Scout will be tested and certified with Therapy Dog International and will continue advance training with Canyon Crest K9 Training Center in Tacoma. They have passed the first level of training. For now, she does not take Scout with her on 911 call outs.

“I don’t take her with me on those. Those are much more intense. They’re much more fluid. I could be called out for what we would consider an unattended death when somebody dies unexpectedly. But it could take a turn, there needs to be an investigation. And it can escalate. Families emotions are escalated. We’re not trained as a team yet to be able to work in that environment.”


Once their training advances sufficiently she hopefully will be able take Scout with her on 911 call outs, but she would stay in her vehicle until an appropriate time.


Photo: Clallam County Sheriff’s Office