“If you took a quarter and threw it out in the middle of Michigan Stadium, the dog will find it,” Dunny said. They can also track criminals, track and find missing people and are trained in evidence article search. They’re explosive-detection dogs, which require them to learn 21 different odors, and then some. Training is an arduous process, but Tank proved to be a quick learner and ideal partner.ĭunny said the K-9 dogs through DPSS are not narcotics dogs, which have to distinguish between only three scents. That was a dog that I took from not knowing anything.” In 2010, he moved to the K-9 unit, taking over Taser from a previous handler until her retirement in 2014. He came to U-M in 1998 and worked in housing security until going through the police academy to become a certified police officer in the mid-2000s. Officer Joseph Dunny and his previous K-9 partner, Tank, pose outside Michigan Stadium, where the pair patrolled every home football game. He also worked for Huron Valley Ambulance to help hone his medical skills as an emergency medical technician and paramedic. It’s a very serious job when working with a dog, but it’s the most rewarding job in law enforcement, in my opinion.”ĭunny served both his hometown Manchester Fire Department and the Pittsfield Township Fire Department after taking law enforcement classes at Washtenaw Community College.
“You can’t be one of these people who dresses their pet up,” he said. But he says being a dog lover is not a prerequisite for working the K-9 unit.
“We’ve had them at all kinds of events, and they’ve done more for community outreach than anything we have in the department.”ĭunny has been around dogs since his childhood and involved with public service for practically the entirety of his career. If you start the other things first, they become distrustful of people and don’t want to be pet,” Dunny said. “What we’ve produced is a friendly police dog that can be petted and do the other things. During that first year, the dogs are taken out in public to socialize them while they also work through the puppy months before getting down to the serious business of tracking, patrolling and searching for explosives. (Photo courtesy of Joseph Dunny)ĭunny, who has been with DPSS since 1998 and with the K-9 unit since 2010, takes great pride in how social the animals are he works with and how effective they are at their important roles.Ĭolumbo and Riggs - like Tank and Nike before them - come from a Belgian Malinois breeder in Kentucky who keeps the dogs for one year before turning them over to DPSS for service. Officer Joseph Dunny and his previous K-9 partner, Tank, worked together for eight years before Tank retired last fall. The request is rarely turned down, and that’s by design. “A lot of times I’ll see someone running on North Campus on Saturdays and ask them, ‘Can you take this tug toy and just keep running and drop it after a couple hundred yards and I’ll get the dog out and track?’” Dunny said. It could be Joseph Dunny and Columbo, one-half of the university’s two K-9 patrol officer units within the Division of Public Safety and Security, and Dunny is just looking for your assistance training the department’s newest officer.
If you’re jogging on North Campus on a Saturday, do not be surprised if you’re approached by a man and his dog.
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