Meet the Dogs is an event put together by the Department of Police Services and is meant to show exactly what the police dogs, Daisy and Tank, can do.
CSUN Police Services introduced the EOD K9 Tank and K9 Daisy by showing their skills off to sniff out bombs or explosives that are potential threats at Big Show and graduations on CSUN.
Daisy, a 2-year-old yellow Labrador, was the first to show her skill set by having various cones laid out in Bayramian Lawn and had to find the training aid that resembles a bomb.
Daisy was originally meant to be a hunting dog, but was too hyper, so the breeder decided she would fit better if she worked for a police department.
The yellow lab struggled a bit to stay focused due to all the squirrels on campus, but still managed to do her job, and once she found the correct cone, let CSUN officer Messormor know by sitting next to it.
When CSUN first started the program, something the police department needed to do was try to support the program the best they could without getting money from university.
Next to show off was K9 Tank. He is a black Labrador and is different from Daisy because he is a person-borne detection dog. Tank is a new type of dog for CSUN Police Services and is considered cutting edge.
Tank is “vapor wake” which means he works with the scent people leave behind when walking because he can pick up it. He was trained at the University of Auburn, which exclusively works with this type of dog.
To show this skill set off, a group of volunteers were chosen from the crowd to walk around in a square. Another officer walked with the crowd, holding a plant based explosive that is used when training the dogs.
Once that person passed, Tank was easily able to pick up the scent and follow that person, even pulling officer Canady to keep following the scent and not let go because the obedience is to the odor, officer Canady said.
The K9 unit was started back in 2005 when the chief had a vision to bring K9’s to sniff bombs. At that time, according to officer Fernandez, it was unique to the CSU schools to have a K9 unit. Now, five to six other campuses have also picked up the program. The dogs are used for special events and have even been used for the secret service.
T-shirts and plush dolls of Daisy and Tank were also sold since the event was also a fundraiser. All the proceeds go back to the program. For the unit, one of the goals that officer Fernandez mentioned when first starting the program was that CSUN Police Services did not want to put any additional pressure on the university.
They have partnered with the National Police Dog Foundation, which has donated many things including dogs, estimating over thousands of dollars to the program.
Daisy and Tank are part of the CSUN community and will be doing their job to keep the campus safe.
