It's a dog's life
Officer Harley retiring from force
Stacy Horany
Times Record News
Published May 27, 2005

A replacement has been found for Officer Harley, the police dog made famous by country singer Shooter Jennings' road trip ballad "Busted in Baylor County."

Seymour Police Chief Tommy Duncan said the City Council decided last week to retire the 11-year-old Belgian Malinois, known in the Jennings song as the "No. 1 dope dog in the state." For a time Officer Harley was the "top dog," one of the most successful in competition in the state for drug sniffing.

Duncan said Officer Harley will be replaced by a 2-year-old female of the same breed. Duncan said her name will be Officer Panther, in honor of the Seymour mascot.

"We are in the process of buying a new dog," Duncan said. "They just received her from Europe last Friday at the training kennel outside of Bandera," he said.

Her handler, Seymour Police Department's John Wilkerson, will train with Officer Panther for three weeks at the kennel. He will then train with her in Seymour before being certified as a national dog handler.

Duncan said Officer Panther will be trained only for non-aggressive response to narcotics-when she finds drugs - she gives a silent signal. Officer Harley is an aggressive response-trained dog, and Duncan said liability issues can arise with aggressive response-trained dogs.

"Aggressive response trained narcotics dogs will tear up seats and scratch the paint off of cars if they detect illegal substances," Duncan said.

City Secretary Elaine Simpson said the council decided to retire Officer Harley because he has some pain in his hips and has trouble getting in and out of his patrol car. She said vets gave the council two options, either retire Officer Harley or reduce his workload.

"Because there is no way to control the drug runners' activities, they decided to retire him," Simpson said.

Simpson said Officer Harley has retired at a home in the country with Seymour Animal Control officer Gerald Livingston. She said he has a poodle companion and is enjoying his time off. He's also responding well to arthritis medication vets prescribed for him.

Duncan said Livingston will use the "gifties" used in narcotics dog training to keep Officer Harley busy, even though he is retired.

"It probably won't hurt Harley to let him do what he's been doing," Duncan said.

And even though Officer Harley will be a tough act to follow, Duncan and Simpson both said they are confident Officer Panther will do a great job.

"We suspect that Panther will probably meet or exceed Harley's accomplishments," Duncan said.

Info Box

"Busted in Baylor County," on Shooter Jennings' album "Put the 'O' Back in Country," was inspired by the songwriter's experience with Officer Harley, Seymour Police Department's recently retired drug-sniffing dog.

"Waylon Jennings' son Shooter happened to come through Baylor County, and he had some stuff on him he shouldn't have," Seymour Police Chief Tommy Duncan said. "Harley detected on him and it inspired him to write 'Busted in Baylor County,' " he said.

According to the Web site http://www.countrymusic.about.com, Jennings said he and co-writer Leroy Powell were traveling from Los Angeles to Wichita Falls after playing their second-ever gig in Lubbock. In the song, Jennings said he was speeding and a highway patrolman pulled him over in Baylor County. Harley detected drugs on Jennings, and they were cuffed and taken to jail.

Jennings said they had less than an eighth of an ounce of pot on them, but no amount of illegal narcotics is too small for Harley's sensitive schnoz.

Jennings and Powell were released in time to make it to their gig in Wichita Falls. Jennings didn't seem to have any hard feelings about Harley, though. "I couldn't have made this song up, so I guess there was a blessing in getting busted," Jennings said on the Web site.

Story By: Stacy A. Horany
Regional Reporter
(940)763-7548
Contact Stacy via e-mail

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