Nevada County welcomes K9 Lambo, new patrol partner for Deputy Ramos

A 15-month-old Belgian Malinois with 240 hours of patrol and detection training behind him is now working street duty with Deputy Kayla Ramos, and Nevada County is betting that kind of drive can be turned into discipline.

K9 Lambo officially joined the Nevada County Sheriff’s Office on May 19, after graduating from his final training block on Friday, May 15. The dog came from a local breeder, was raised and trained by Modern Canine in Sacramento, then spent six more weeks in additional preparation with Ramos through D-TAC K9, a Northern California training organization focused on patrol and detection work.

That last stretch mattered. Lambo and Ramos logged a total of 240 hours together, the same training load the sheriff’s office previously used for K9 Odin in December 2024. By the end of the process, Lambo was already POST-certified in patrol and detection, with specialties that include obedience, suspect searching, building searches, tracking, article detention, handler protection and apprehension. The office said narcotics-detection certification could follow in the fall, which would push his role beyond general patrol and into drug-interdiction work as well.

The launch also carried a clear price tag. On March 24, the Nevada County Board of Supervisors authorized a $28,500 Rüdiger Foundation grant for purchases related to Lambo. That outside funding helped underwrite a dog and training package that county leaders view as more than a line item. It is the kind of investment that determines whether a small department can keep a fully certified K9 on the street.

Lambo is the fifth K9 to join the sheriff’s office since Sheriff Shannan Moon reestablished the program in 2020. He steps into a team shaped by loss and turnover, after Ranger retired in May 2024 and Riggs died in March 2026. The department now lists Lambo alongside Odin and Vito, and has repeatedly described the K9 program as a tool for officer safety, public safety and suspect apprehension.

Those expectations are not abstract. The office has pointed to past work such as Vito helping in a vehicle-theft apprehension and Riggs assisting Ramos in a drug-and-firearm case. Lambo’s arrival extends that same model: a young, high-drive dog, selected and trained for the moment when raw energy has to become controlled work, and then put to duty where discipline matters most.