(Springfield, MO) -- We can all understand how important it is for police officers to trust their partners.
But what if your partner is only about 65 pounds and drools a lot?

Greene County's new K-9 dog is the first canine the department has had in more than forty years.
And as KOLR10's Jessica Williams reports, over the last few months he's been pretty busy.

These teeth probably aren't something you'd want to have a close encounter with.
"We were on a track recently where the suspect wanted to assault me and the dog was deployed to defend me," says Deputy James Inlow, whose new partner is K-9 officer Dar.

It was an area we've lacked for many years. Another thing is we have shortfall in manpower, and this is an extra back-up that our deputies have," says Greene County Sheriff Jim Arnott, of the new addition to the department.

So far Greene County's newest member of the department has already assisted in 11 searches, several tracking events, and helped take down a suspect fleeing a vehicle.

But all that praise comes with a lot of practice, Inlow says.  "He's trained to do building searches, apprehension, tracking narcotic searches, evidence searches."

We decided to give Dar a little test to see how quickly he could find my chap stick.  It took less than three minutes.
"The sensory abilities of a canine is much better than our average deputy," Arnott acknowledges.

Of course, when Dar does a good job at work he doesn't get a paycheck-- instead he gets a tennis ball.

Dar isn't the only one who's had to learn a few new tricks though.  This pure-breed Belgian Malinois isn't from the United States, so Inlow had to learn how to give him commands in German.

And unlike most partners-- Dar lives with deputy Inlow and his family and their 9 lb.Maltese, who isn't a fan.  Inlow was planning on keeping the dog inside but he quickly figured out that Dar doesn't like closed spaces.  "If I was to leave he'd probably have the couch cushions torn up and the curtains off the walls."

It's just one of the many growing pains of working side by side with a unique partner.

The Greene County Sheriff's Department is planning to get another canine in December, thanks to a donation from a community member.