Boulder County Sheriff's Office Mourns Loss Of K-9 'Duce'

BOULDER, Colo. (CBS4) - The Boulder County Sheriff's Office is mourning the loss of one of their service dogs, Duce.

According to Commander Heidi Prentup, Dep. Eric Robinson and Duce became a K-9 team in February of 2005.

"Throughout their eight years as a team they have consistently distinguished themselves with exceptional service to not only the Boulder County Sheriff's Office, but to numerous local, state, and federal agencies," Prentup said in a statement.

According to Prentup, Robinson and Duce were in high demand because of Duce's ability to detect explosives, which is rare along the Front Range.

"During their tenure as a team they were deployed close to 300 times, 40 of those were for bomb searches. The most recent and notable was a mutual aid request for the tragic theater shooting in Aurora," Prentup said.

Prior to his death Duce had retired from service due to medical problems.