Fargo Police Welcome Axel, 16‑Month Belgian Malinois From Slovakia for 13‑Week Certification

Axel, a 16-month-old Belgian Malinois who arrived from Slovakia, has been paired with Officer Adam Schock and entered a 13-week K-9 certification program, the Fargo Police Department announced on March 2, 2026. The program will train Axel in narcotic detection, patrol skills that include tracking, and apprehension work, and the department expects the team to begin regular patrols together after certification.

The department introduced Axel on its social channels with a brief post identifying him as the newest member of the K-9 unit; the department’s Instagram snippet began, “Meet the newest member of #FargoPD – K-9 Axel! Axel is a 16-month-old Belgian Malinois from” and the official announcement carried the core facts about Axel’s origin, age and handler pairing. No public statement from Officer Adam Schock or other Fargo PD spokespeople was included in the material released with the announcement.

Training for Axel is scheduled to last 13 weeks, mirroring recent Fargo K-9 training practices for patrol and narcotics work. The announced curriculum lists narcotic detection as a primary task, patrol skills explicitly including tracking to find missing persons or suspects, and apprehension training to safely detain individuals when necessary. The department’s material says Axel and Schock will move onto patrol duties once the certification period is complete.

Axel’s arrival continues a pattern in Fargo’s K-9 program of sourcing Belgian Malinois with international origins and putting them through multiweek certifications. City of Fargo records show K-9 Blue was born April 28, 2016 in Slovakia, was purchased and trained by Shallow Creek Kennels in Sharpsville, Pennsylvania, paired with Sergeant Sam Bollman in June 2017 and completed training in August 2017. As of December 2018, Blue had been deployed more than 325 times to locate narcotics, evidence or an individual.

Other recent Fargo profiles underline the department’s consistent training cadence: K-9 Thor, born January 23, 2021 and trained in Rushford, Minnesota, completed a 13-week course and was paired with Officer Elliot Olerud in spring 2022; Thor’s profile lists detection of methamphetamine, heroin, cocaine and ecstasy and patrol skills such as area and building searches and apprehension. K-9 Uno, born January 1, 2017 in Saint-Saulve, France, followed a multinational sourcing and training path before starting street work on May 1, 2018; Uno’s profile includes the humanizing detail that he “enjoys playing fetch in the backyard, chewing on his bone, and laying around the house.”

Public materials about Axel do not list the vendor or kennel that supplied him, the exact arrival date from Slovakia, the certification provider or the cost of procurement. For now, the confirmed facts are Axel’s age, breed, country of origin, handler pairing with Officer Adam Schock, the 13-week certification schedule and the stated training focus areas; after certification the pair are slated to begin regular patrol duties for the Fargo Police Department.