Athens County Sheriff’s Office welcomes energetic, compassionate K-9
The Athens County Sheriff’s Office added a new member to their team: Bara the K-9.
Bara is a service dog donated to the county sheriff’s office by The Blue Line Foundation, an organization that provides law enforcement with resources to better their communities.
Community Relations Deputy Jayson White, who is also the school resource officer in Athens, is Bara’s partner. He said The Blue Line Foundation first reached out to him in early 2025 to see what they could do to help Athens.
“Since I started this particular job five years ago, every school that I go to or every building I walk in, whenever I see kids, the first thing I always hear is, ‘Where’s your dog?’ (or) ‘You should get a dog,’” White said.
Before White met Bara, the two-year-old service dog had already started training at Circle Tail, a non-profit organization based in Cincinnati, that trains and pairs service and facility dogs with potential owners.
Jen Kiblinger, the president of Circle Tail, had the opportunity to be Bara’s foster owner while he was going through training. She said Bara came to Circle Tail from another service dog school when he was about eight weeks old.
Kiblinger said the program takes two to three years to complete, depending on the maturity level of the dog. During training, the dogs cycle through three locations: Circle Tail’s kennel, a foster home and a prison.
At first, the dogs start learning basic manners and skills. The dogs are introduced to environments they might be in while training.
“A lot of it is just building confidence and sociability (in) new sorts of environments we have, like play equipment in the play rooms … just stuff that can kind of be intimidating for some dogs,” Kiblinger said. “We want them to kind of be used to seeing different things and walking over different surfaces.”
As the dog transitions to a foster home, new skills are applied to real world scenarios.
“I fostered Bara, so I took him to my office, and I would take him to any errands I would run,” Kiblinger said. “They learn how to behave in public, behave around people (and) behave around other dogs.”
In the prisons, the inmates learn how to train the dogs through the Inmate and Canine Educational Training Prison Program. Circle Tail works with two prisons in Ohio: the Ohio Reformatory for Women and the Dayton Correctional Institute.
As the dogs mature, trainers determine which route is best suited to each dog. Circle Tail trains service and hearing dogs for mobility assistance, seizure response, type one diabetes and hearing loss. Facility dogs are trained for schools and care facilities.
“We look for, ‘Where is this dog going to be happiest?’” Kiblinger said. “‘What career is best for this dog?’ For Bara, I was like, ‘Yeah, he’s a facility dog.’”