The Summit County sheriff's office will freshen up its customer service training for animal control officers after sheriff's deputies caused a community uproar by shooting and killing a pet dog.

Sheriff Dave Edmunds spent Wednesday afternoon with the Summit County Commission describing the incident that led to Rowdy's death and the ensuing public relations nightmare for his office. Deputies shot Rowdy, a 6-year-old husky mix, because they said he had cornered a buck in the hills outside Park City proper the afternoon of Friday, Dec. 9. Animal control officers took Rowdy's body to owner Jenny Schapper's house immediately after his death. She did not accept the body at the time, so the officers took Rowdy back to their site.

"I was absolutely ruined that day," Schapper said. "I felt really awful the next day — why didn't I think about it? They could have put him in my garage."

The following Monday when Schapper's friend Natalie Hatch and Schapper's sister went to animal control to retrieve Rowdy's body, officers said he was in a Dumpster and that Hatch would be responsible for digging out the carcass. Hatch said several officers watched as she rooted through garbage to find Rowdy, unbagged and frozen, at the bottom of the Dumpster.

Edmunds defended the deputies who shot Rowdy — that action was within state law, county code and sheriff's policies, he said. But he did not offer the same defense for the animal control department, which falls under his supervision.

"That's not the kind of office that I'm running up here," Edmunds said. "That's not the way that we do business. I do not condone that behavior, and it will not happen again."

County Commissioner Sally Elliott said that the sheriff's office worked with the commission to come up with better training procedures.

"We're going to revise our policies and procedures. We're going to do customer training for the animal control enforcement officers. We're going to do other kinds of animal control programs," Elliott said. "And we're going to try not to kill any more dogs."

Schapper and Hatch want to know why the sheriff's office didn't use a pepper ball, a warning shot or some other non-lethal method of scaring Rowdy away from the deer before shooting at him. Edmunds said his deputies tried other methods that didn't work, although he could not say what those methods were.

"If they really have a problem with (Rowdy), they should come to me and say, 'What can we do together so that your dog can stay in his yard?' " Schapper said. "We can work it out together as people."

Schapper retrieved Rowdy's ashes Wednesday, bringing him back to the house she shares with her mother and sister's family.

"He was my constant companion," Schapper said. "He got scared when the wind blew, so he would come and sit on my lap when the wind blew. He was just a good dog. He did run away and escape sometimes — and that was his biggest flaw — but he was a good boy."

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E-mail: kswinyard@desnews.com