Vanderbilt University Police Department welcomed its two newest K-9 officers—Dyno, a yellow Lab/beagle mix, and Brutus, a chocolate Lab.
Dyno and Brutus, both 2 years old, will assist VUPD with sweeping large events on campus throughout the year such as sporting and speaking events and concerts. They join Harvey, a German Shepherd K-9 officer, who has served at Vanderbilt for nearly four years. The three explosive detection canines on the force serve an average of 140 events per year as well as assist in requests from Metro Nashville Police Department for events in Davidson County.
Dyno, Brutus and their handlers went through the United States Police Canine Association training course under the direction of Ron Black, MNPD’s K-9 section dog trainer.
Both dogs were purchased in September 2017 from I-K9, a vendor that specializes in providing detector and apprehension dogs for federal agencies within the Department of Homeland Security. Their training started immediately in October 2017 and they graduated the basic explosive detection canine course in March 2018.
VUPD started its explosive detection program in 2007 after using dogs provided by an outside agency for several years.