‘Good Boy, Bandit!’: Hero Dog Locates Missing Ohio Toddler in Under 10 Minutes

The praise is still flowing for a hero K-9 dog in Ohio this week who was able to track down a missing three year-old child in under 10 minutes.

A K-9 named Bandit (shown above) and his primary officer, Deputy Frank Bleigh, received a call on Tuesday about a three-year-old boy who had been missing from his front yard in the town of Sidney for 45 minutes, according to WDTN.

The boy’s parents believed the child had wandered off — and that nobody else was involved in the disappearance.

So officers immediately began scouring the Sidney neighborhood for signs of the toddler.

Finding the boy turned out to be no easy task for the officers.

The child lives in a rural area with miles separating many of the neighboring homes.

In addition, the boy’s house is surrounded by a country road.

There are ditches in the yards and plenty of corn fields — so any number of terrible things could have happened to the child if he were left outside by himself for too long.

Good dog, Bandit!! https://t.co/7TFNIDQ91r

— Live5News (@Live5News) October 9, 2019

After having no luck finding the toddler themselves, the officers decided to call in Bandit, a four-year-old German Shepherd-Malinois mix.

The pooch had been a Dual Purpose Patrol Dog for only four months.

Dogs who have received the training Bandit’s been given are very good trackers — so officers were hopeful the dog would be able to locate the missing boy.

Once on the scene, Bandit was not only able to find the child — he also tracked the toddler down faster than even the professionals imagined.

Related: ‘Please Bring My Baby Back,’ Says Florida Woman

In less than 10 minutes, Bandit picked up the boy’s scent about a quarter of a mile away.

He started at the family’s front yard and proceeded to lead officers to a nearby field — where they found the child frightened and upset, but physically unharmed.

He was discovered “in a patch of thistles, which can scrape skin and which officers believe the child was scared to move in,” WDTN noted.

“We could see him in a field about 100 yards out,” Deputy Bleigh told WDTN. “We continued to track [him] and were able to grab the child and pick him up and bring him back to Dad.”

Afterward, the Shelby County Sheriff’s Office shared news on Facebook about Bandit’s dramatic deed.

The post immediately went viral, garnering over 6,000 responses in just 24 hours.

In terms of handling all of the newfound stardom coming the dog’s way, Officer Bleigh does not think Bandit will have any problem there.

“He’s a really tracker, he’s a good narcotics dog, and he loves attention,” Bleigh said of the K-9.

Wrote one person on Facebook, “Heartwarming outcome! Awesome job K-9 Bandit and handler. So glad the child was found safe and so quickly. Thanks for your service from Texas!”

Wrote another person, “Awesome! So happy the child was found. Thank you, Deputy Frank and Bandit.”

Still another person shared this view — one likely to be shared by many others as well: “With all the terrible stories with unhappy endings, this warms my heart. Wonderful job by Bandit and the deputy. Thank you both for your service and God bless you!”

Check out this video — and share your own thoughts.