Ike was hand-selected and brought from overseas by professional dog trainer Steve Pearson of Performance Kennels, Inc., at Buffalo, Minnesota, just like Cyrus, another Minot Police Department K-9. Pearson has been working with and training police K-9s for 22 years, having prior service experience in the force.

Minot Police Department also has Caspian, a third K-9.

Once contact was established between Minot Police Department and Performance Kennels, Inc., Officer Michael Connole was chosen to be Ike’s handler. In order to build their bond, the pup spent about a month at Connole’s house with his family and other dogs.

Ike was ready to play from day one, but it took some time for the current furry residents to warm up to the newcomer. Ike is a social dog, liking the company of other dogs, and the others liked having their space. According to Connole, all of the dogs are able to live together happily.

Ciara Parizek/MDN K-9 Ike strikes a pose for the camera while waiting to receive his ball from Officer Michael Connole in front of The Minot Daily News on Tuesday.

During the time they spent together before training, he had not ever heard Ike make a sound. He never growled, barked, or even whined. When the neighbor dogs would bark at him through the fence, he would just look at them, walk away, and “do Ike things,” as the officer called it.

Training for the canine began in August 2023, undergoing a 12-week program with Performance Kennels, Inc., in Minnesota to be trained to detect narcotics and apprehend the bad guys. Ike caught onto all of the training pretty quickly, but he really struggled with “heel,” or going to the handler’s side on cue, just not in the way that some may think.

The dogs that Pearson chooses are extremely ball-driven. Connole chuckled and said that Ike would run through a brick wall to get his ball. All of the excitement to earn his toy as a reward had Ike’s head in the clouds, and the team spent approximately six weeks working on “heel.”

“… We hit a part where everything just clicked one day,” he continued, “and it was pretty much smooth sailing from there.”

A couple months later, Ike ended up injured during a training exercise, tearing his anterior cruciate ligament, or ACL. The veterinarian that performed the surgery had done several ACL surgeries on hunting and other working breeds, showing a 98% success rate. However, with the physically demanding job that K-9 Ike does, there is a 30% chance that he could tear his other ACL.

That risk is why Connole went the extra mile and started Ike on glucosamine supplements to keep his hips and joints healthy.

Ike has also been placed on light duty, only doing simple training to keep his mind working. He is a high-energy dog, so keeping him calm is no easy task. He spends a lot of down time chewing on his toys and bones, but as soon as he gets in the cruiser, he is back to work.

Over the last 10 years of his career, Connole had never had a K-9 before, and now he can’t imagine not having a dog in his cruiser.

“It’s been weird having an empty car,” he said. “I didn’t know how boring it was without him in the car. It’s been a blast since I started.”

Right now, he is focused on getting Ike healed up to get him back on the job and give the K-9 a rockstar career.

Ciara Parizek/MDN K-9 Ike strikes a pose for the camera while waiting to receive his ball from Officer Michael Connole in front of The Minot Daily News on Tuesday.