The city of Austin took a first step toward getting a new four-legged police officer.

The Austin City Council voted during its Monday work session to purchase a new police K-9, but the move will need to be officially approved at the next regular meeting on March 21.

The new dog, a Belgian Malinois, is one-and-a-half years old right now, which is the perfect age to start training a police dog, according to Austin Police Chief Brian Krueger.

“The opportunities that come up for a year-and-half-old dog to be a good K-9 come up very rare,” he said.

The dog’s current owner, a police officer in Cambridge, isn’t able to keep him anymore because he is now in upper management. He would let the department have a two-week trial run with the dog, which is the amount of time Lt. Matt Holton needs to determine if the dog has the drive to be a police K-9, Krueger said. If the dog did not have the drive, they would return him and begin the search again.

Sonic, the Austin Police Department’s current K-9, is getting ready to retire and live as a regular house pet with his handler, Holton, who is also stepping down from the K-9 program.

Last year Officer Derek Ellis began working with K-9 officer Rudy and began going on calls late in December.

The plan is for Holton to train the new dog and new handler, Officer Tom Brogan, until they’re ready to go, likely in 2017. Then Holton and Sonic will retire from the K-9 unit.

Krueger explained the initial purchase of the new dog is $3,500, and Holton said it would cost about $6,000 for narcotics and tracking training, for a total cost of about $9,500. Holton and Brogan would also do the apprehension training.

Krueger said a new dog is included in the department’s 2017 budget and 2016 forfeiture funds would also be used.

Holton has worked with the K-9 program for the past 27 years, and he was also one of the first officers to start the program.

Holton also plans to donate $500 in order to keep Sonic in his family. The city of Austin has a policy that if a purchase is over $500, they have to open it up for bids. The $500 from Holton would go into the budget or be used for something else, Krueger explained.

The average length of a Belgian Malinois work life is eight years, and Sonic will be 6 years old when he retires and will still have time left. Yet Holton said it would be too difficult to transition Sonic to another handler after he has spent his whole career training with Holton.

Krueger praised Holton for his work with the K-9 program.

“Matt [Holton] does a lot of training off duty,” he said. “Matt’s donated a lot of time and effort into this K-9 program.”