Missing South Florida police bloodhound returned to handler

SWEETWATER, Fla. (AP) -- A missing South Florida police search dog has been found.

Sweetwater Police Officer Jenna Mendez tells The Miami Herald (http://bit.ly/vorfDt) that the 60-pound bloodhound named Gunner was returned Sunday by a woman who found the dog running in a church field.

Gunner went missing Friday afternoon from Mendez's yard. The 7-month-old black and tan dog is training to search for missing children.

Mendez says the dog would be taken to a veterinarian for a check-up but otherwise seemed fine.

Gunner was donated by the Jimmy Ryce Foundation six months ago.

The Miami-Dade Police deployed a helicopter with heat-seeking equipment for the search Friday night. The Hialeah Police Department contributed one of its bloodhounds to the search.

An older Sweetwater Police bloodhound was called out of retirement to help as well