Olmsted County Sheriff’s Office welcomes first female K9 handler in department’s history

Jennifer Bredow
[Photo: Olmsted County Sheriff's Office via Twitter]

(ABC 6 News) – The Olmsted County Sheriff’s Office is welcoming a historic new pair to the department.

The sheriff’s office took to Twitter Tuesday to welcome a new K9 and handler pairing. K9 Ragnar is a 16-month-old Belgian Malinois from Hungary. Deputy Aviana Torkelson is Ragnar’s handler and is the first female handler in the department’s history.

"The team is in the midst of their initial bonding/training period and will begin full-time training at St. Paul Police K9 Academy [this] week through May."

The sheriff’s office said once the pair finish their training they will specialize in patrol work which includes evidence recovery, tracking, building/area searches, criminal apprehension, and narcotics detection.