A former Gainesville police officer is under investigation for possibly abusing a police dog.

The officer abruptly resigned three weeks ago and police soon after discovered problems with the dog that had been assigned to him, Gainesville Police Chief Frank Hooper said.

Hooper declined to name the officer, a 10-year veteran who was the department’s senior dog handler, citing an ongoing criminal investigation by the Georgia Bureau of Investigation. The GBI is investigating after Hooper went to District Attorney Lee Darragh with possible evidence of misconduct.

The dog, a Belgian Malinois named Diego that the department had for nine months, was euthanized at the recommendation of veterinary and police dog experts because of his vicious nature, Hooper said. It was never used in police service.

Hooper said soon after the senior dog handler resigned, another canine handler took the dog home and discovered it was uncontrollably vicious. The dog bit the handler, requiring stitches to his hand, Hooper said.

Police reviewed video of the dog in training and discovered that the sessions seemed "a little bizarre," Hooper said.

"Some of the training methods used on this canine to me seemed a little unorthodox," he said.

The chief said the video, which was made as standard procedure in all training sessions, showed what appeared to be an electric shock collar around the dog’s midsection.

Hooper said it appeared shocks were delivered to the dog’s genitals in an attempt to keep it from biting.

An independent police dog handler evaluated the dog and determined it could not be rehabilitated, Hooper said. The handler believed the dog suffered from the effects of poor training methods before police acquired it and possibly afterward, Hooper said.

"We tried to find any other option, but there was no option," Hooper said.

The dog was purchased by the department from a kennel in the Midwest last fall. The officer under investigation kept it at his home before resigning. Police discovered after the resignation that the dog had earlier failed a required certification from a police dog training association.

Hooper said the investigation remains with the GBI, which will report back to the district attorney with its findings.