The Statesboro Police Department announced Wednesday that a 9-week-old bloodhound will officially join its K-9 team in August of 2019.

“K-9 Rio is going to be a big brother, and it’s a boy,” Statesboro PD said in a Facebook post.

The bloodhound pup will be trained as the department’s first tracking dog. He will be trained to track missing children, wanted suspects and missing people from nursing homes.

“A dedicated tracking dog is a specialist, and we are excited to bring this resource to our department,” Statesboro PD Chief Mike Broadhead said.

According to the Facebook post, the pup is already showing great tracking ability.

Michael Duncan, a Statesboro local, bred the pup. He will train the pup for one year and then donate him to the K-9 team.

“Mr. Duncan has a great tracking dog named Red, and he has had success with Red’s previous offspring,” Broadhead said. “He had the idea to donate a dog to us and provide the dog’s initial year’s worth of training, because he is a local guy and knew we lacked this ability.”

Statesboro PD is asking for name suggestions for the new pup. Locals can comment on the the department’s Facebook post with suggestions until Sept. 8.

On Sept. 9, three of the best names will be put to a vote on Facebook to make the final choice. The name with the most votes will be announced Sept. 12.

Tori Collins, The George-Anne Daily Reporter, ganews@georgiasouthern.edu