Sedona Police Officer Jon Reed will be able to bring his work home with him now that his K-9 partner Max retired Thursday, May 11.

“This has been the best six years of my career so far,” Reed said about working with the nearly 8-year-old Belgian Malinois. “Max is already living with me and my two Great Danes, so not too much will change. He will just stay home while I still go to work.”

Max was born on June 18, 2015, in Italy. Reed first encountered the dog when he and his wife went with SPD Chief Stephanie Foley to look for prospective dogs for the department in California. Foley was formerly a K-9 officer with her partner, Dalan.

What drew Reed to Max out of the available 25 prospects was his gentle temperament, which he said was critical because SPD often works in local schools.

“He also just had a natural confidence about him I like,” Reed said. ”Anything we put him through he knocked out of the park. But the minute he was done he walked right over to my wife and let her pet him and was very social.”

SPD began using Max on Dec. 18, 2017, and retired him on May 11.

“Max really likes stuffed animals,” said SPD Sgt. Nathan Dorfman, Reed’s former supervisor, during Max’s retirement celebration at Posse Grounds Park. “He would get them and shred them and [Reed] did everything he could to hide all the stuffed animals. So I would quietly sneak around the control room and I would hide [them] on the desk, in people’s offices … [But] he’s probably the most productive dog this town has ever had.”

Max was usually kept on hand on nights and weekends, and Reed’s typical shift with him consisted of driving around, following up on suspects or known locations of drug or criminal activity and doing targeted traffic stops.

Max also was sent to between 400 and 500 hours of animal training each year and was deployed nearly 300 times by SPD and its partner agencies, including the Yavapai County

Sheriff’s Office, the Arizona Department of Public Safety and Partners Against Narcotics Trafficking for both drug detection and suspect apprehension.

“We had a barricade shooting where after several hours of the subject shooting at us, [Max] ultimately got sent in to confirm that the subject was no longer a threat to us,” Reed said. “[Max] had to get sent in on two occasions during that deployment. You can imagine the stress for me as the handler sending Max in.”

Reed also bragged about his success in using the dog as a threat.

“You get the dog out and suddenly people become very compliant,” Reed said. “I can think of one call where the guy was in a room full of CS gas, pepper balls … He’s in there screaming on his bed doing pushups and he’s high. That could have easily turned into an officer-involved shooting.

“When Max tried to break through the door to get to him, and all he could hear was [the] door breaking as Max [was] trying to get in. He started screaming, ‘Get the dog away and I’ll come out’ … He got put on the ground, but avoided a dog bite and avoided an officer involved shooting.”

Reed is moving onto a motorcycle unit with the department and offered his successor the advice of “just work hard and stay committed to the position because it’s a lot of work.”

“Jon Reed stayed committed,” SPD Lt. Karl Waak said. “They’re responsible for getting a lot of drugs off the street, and just [have] been an all-around great representative of our agency. It’s a sad day, but I’m happy Jon gets to keep Max with him. He’s going to have a great life at Jon’s house where he’s become accustomed to being a dog, hopefully.”

The decision to retire the dog was based on his age and his health issues. SPD is planning on purchasing a replacement trained K-9 dog around August or September, according to Foley.

Correction:

The print version of this story missidentified Sedona police officer Jon Reed as Sgt. John Peel. We sincerely apologize for the error.