ZEBULON - The police department has been working for several months to train a new police dog, but after training fell through twice the department recently placed an existing officer in training.

After a police dog the department bought last year failed to pass its examinations it was replaced by the department's new police dog Ronin. Ronin, a 1-year-old German Shepherd, went on to pass his tests, but an officer who seemed to be a good fit as dog's handler couldn't pass the final exam stages. Zebulon police Chief Tim Hayworth declined to identify the officer.

"It's one of those things that doesn't happen often, but is unfortunate that it didn't work out," Hayworth said. "The officer and dog had got to the final stages and just couldn't quite finish it. At that time we had to say if we wanted to keep going or refocus our attention."

Last week the police department gained approval from the town board to use $7,000 of the department's drug forfeiture funds to cover the costs of training officer Jesse Brown to become Ronin's new handler.

"There is a series of training levels both the dog and officer have to go through to meet state and national levels of control," Hayworth said. "We don't want the dog to be questionable when we need the dog to work. We want the dog to be accurate and considered qualified for court purposes."

Brown is currently attending the training program at Ventosa Kennel in Scotland Neck and is being evaluated for the position. He will undergo four more weeks of training, bonding and testing with Ronin before it will be determined whether he is qualified to handle the dog and bring a K9 unit back to Zebulon's streets.

"So far so good, but we'll find out as we go," Hayworth said.