Army Spc. Michelle Juares has been reunited with her now-retired K-9 partner, Darco.
The 9-year-old Belgian Malinois had been paired with Juares for two years starting in 2023, but was recently retired, and while Juares was eager to take him, logistics didn’t allow for that — until recently.
As part of the American Humane Society’s Military Working Dog Reunification program, Darco got to head home for the holidays with Juares and her husband.
Juares is now stationed at Fort Meade in Maryland. When they met up after their six-month separation, Darco was clearly happy, wagging his tail, but didn’t seem to recognize Juares right away.
That didn’t faze Juares.
“They don’t even know or remember what they ate yesterday for dinner,” she said.
Juares, who was attuned to her old partner’s moods, said a camera crew was there when they were reunited.
“He was very anxious in that moment because he saw so many cameras and lights,” she said. “Of course, he was still excited because someone was giving him attention and whatnot.”
Juares said she knew from the time she first enlisted that she wanted to be a K-9 handler.
Before she got to meet her K-9 partner, she had “the standard basic combat training, which teaches you all about being a soldier,” and then she was fast-tracked into military police training before being paired with Darco for drug detection work in Italy.
Juares told WTOP that Darco was “hard-headed” and had a lot of drive. The dog had two previous handlers before he was assigned to her.
“Originally, he was in Germany, but he had an incident there where he bit the top of somebody’s finger off,” she said.
So Darco was transferred to Italy, where Juares met him and said his training needed work.
“I had to build him from the ground up,” Juares said.
Juares said she did wonder if she knew what she was getting into when she started as a K-9 handler.
She wasn’t always a dog lover.
“I actually was scared of dogs growing up,” Juares said.
So when she heard about Darco’s track record, she was a little worried, but that all changed after getting to know him.
“He’s very misunderstood,” Juares said.
Life in retirement doesn’t mean Darco’s simply parked on the couch. As a former working dog, Juares said he needs mental and physical stimulation.
He’s a big fan of fetch. But he is having to slow down because he recently tore his ACL, an injury he’s already suffered on a different leg.
“Right now, his day-to-day life since he’s gotten his surgery has been much more chillaxed,” Juares said. “We just want him to settle down.”
In the meantime, he’s getting short walks and lots of treats.
“Pumpkin, blueberries, like all the sort of stuff he didn’t get to have in the kennels,” Juares said.
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