DENVER — Arapahoe County Sheriff's Deputy John Gray and his canine partner, Rex, are a man and a dog on a mission. Actually, two missions.
Gray is a school resource officer who rotates between eight different schools. Rex, a 1-year-old Labrador retriever, is a therapy dog trained to provide comfort and support. On Thursday, he was doing just that at Newton Middle School in Littleton.
"It's kind of cheesy, but I always say even if a kid's not having a bad day, it could always be better, and they get so excited to see Rex," Gray said.
And Rex clearly gets excited to see kids. He also gets excited doing the other part of his job: Sniffing for guns and gunpowder.
This summer, Rex completed his training as a gun and gunpowder detection dog, becoming the first school therapy dog in Colorado with that dual certification.
"He can find ammunition, pipe bombs, shell casings, magazines and firearms," Gray said.
On a typical day, in between sweeping schools for weapons and impromptu meetings with students and staff, Gray helps maintain Rex's finely-tuned nose, placing metal boxes laced with gunpowder inside lockers for Rex to find. So far, they have not found any guns or gunpowder outside of their training exercises.
Gray said it's a sad commentary that a gun-detecting dog is necessary in schools, but said as a parent himself, it's comforting knowing that Rex is at the ready.
"He has the ability and the desire to look for guns and keep our kids safe," Gray said.
SUGGESTED VIDEOS: Latest from 9NEWS