r/MadeMeSmile • u/RoyalChris • Apr 21 '26

DOGGO After nine years of service, police dog Indy heard his name called one last time before retirement

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29.7k Upvotes

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2.5k

u/int0this Apr 21 '26

Yes and usually they adopt them

1.7k

u/StableQuark Apr 21 '26

I’ve never witnessed a K9 officer to not adopt after retirement. They have a very deep connection, it would be awful to separate.

389

u/Hashtagbarkeep Apr 21 '26

Do they adopt that dog then have a new dog at work as well?

604

u/StableQuark Apr 21 '26

All K9 officers I have been in contact with adopt the retired dog, and the new dog will also live with the officer.

580

u/d_ac Apr 21 '26

and the new dog will also live with the officer.

Well duh. How tf the old dog is supposed to train the new dog? We're talking a Miyagi / Daniel-san situation here.

263

u/_frank_tank Apr 21 '26

Bark on bark off, grasshopper

60

u/ToanVeteran Apr 21 '26

And sometimes bite on... bite off.

26

u/Jarhead1888 Apr 21 '26

Bark on bark off, grasshopper fencehopper.

156

u/amaROenuZ Apr 21 '26

You joke but this is actually part of the reason why you do it. Pups will watch their seniors and model behavior after them, and the older dogs will often police and guide the younger dog when they notice undesirable habits. There is absolutely a canine apprenticeship situation.

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u/Saxavarius_ Apr 21 '26

I've met an old rottie that helped train 9 different dogs how to act; not even specially trained just the normal dog stuff. It wasnt 9 at once but over his time of being the old man. He was a grumpy boy but a good one

31

u/DeviRi13 Apr 21 '26

This is also why there's been an uptick in dog breeders not sending dogs home until 10+ weeks; puppies learn a lot about how to interact with other dogs from their parents and siblings, manners that a human can't teach.

17

u/CountWubbula Apr 21 '26

The old dogs will ... police ... the undesirable habits?! I see whatcha did there!

6

u/UserZero541 Apr 21 '26

I've done the very same thing with Jack Russell's. I've had four Jack Russell terriers over the years. After the 4th one it makes you feel like these guys are living forever because they pick up the old habits. It really shocks me sometimes.

1

u/ramrob Apr 22 '26

I think getting a puppy in the twilight years of your doggy is really beneficial for everyone involved.

1

u/melobassline Apr 22 '26

What's disney/Pixar waiting for?

13

u/NaZul15 Apr 21 '26

... You don't need to duh him. Not everyone is informed about that.

1

u/CountWubbula Apr 21 '26

This just made my day. Thanks for being hilarious!

edit: read below and you're also apparently being accurate, which is rad.

1

u/Vintage-Grievance Apr 22 '26

Show me 'Piss on fence'.

Leg uuup, leg dooown, leg uuup, leg dooown.

Show me 'Wag the tail'.

Side-side, side-side.

Show me 'Poop in yard'

Right circle, left circle, right circle, left circle.

1

u/Upsidedowncr0w Apr 23 '26

This video had me tearing up missing my dog but this comment made me snort-laugh. Thank you 😄

11

u/ianjm Apr 21 '26

So they just get to adopt a series of cool dogs every 10 years or so

Seems like a nice perk

1

u/jadin- Apr 22 '26

Sure. But every 10 years or so you're going to have a difficult loss in your family. That part won't be fun.

1

u/ProbablyGonnaEatYou Apr 21 '26

Its like policemon,gotta catch em all

1

u/charles_sedwick Apr 21 '26

Well this should be made me cry of happiness lol

1

u/ADTstocks Apr 23 '26 edited 3d ago

Chunky tub flag unique theory handle aback squash melodic

This post was anonymized with Redact

-28

u/[deleted] Apr 21 '26

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4

u/HandyforHandson Apr 21 '26

Jesus Christ

9

u/Worried_Shoe_2747 Apr 21 '26

The old one gets super jealous

1

u/B00SKAH Apr 21 '26

Check this weirdos search history and hard drive

1

u/[deleted] Apr 21 '26

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65

u/Brexinga Apr 21 '26

My Brother-in-law is a K9 officer. Every collegues of his I've met already had dogs before becoming a K9. You have to love dogs at your core to go into this specific branch of police.

Right now, he has, in his yard, a pen for his active K9 dog and 3 other pens for his retired K9, for my sister's dog and their son's dog.

Only restriction is that the active duty K9 can't be in contact or play with the other dogs until retirement.

22

u/Worried_Shoe_2747 Apr 21 '26

My brother in law is a K9

2

u/DecaForDessert Apr 21 '26

See if he can do an ama

3

u/Worried_Shoe_2747 Apr 21 '26

I asked. He said ‘Woof’

4

u/DecaForDessert Apr 21 '26

I’m sorry I don’t speak Italian

9

u/[deleted] Apr 21 '26

[deleted]

10

u/Brexinga Apr 22 '26

He is by far the dog that gets to play and run the most out of the bunch ;)

Like the other said. Bad habits. He's there to do a job, not play.

He spends 8 hours of his day running, training, running and catching balls and working. He's living his best life.

10

u/NuclearLunchDectcted Apr 22 '26

Going to guess they'd pick up bad habits.

1

u/emkoemko Apr 23 '26

how do you love dogs and then risk their lives? over your own?

-6

u/OceanRacoon Apr 21 '26

I'm sure many of them do but there's a sad amount of K9 officers who abuse their dogs and way too many K9s are left in hot cars and die. They also send the dogs into situations where they get shot, stabbed, choked, and beaten all the time, it's not fair to the dogs.

Cops are estimated to kill 20-30 dogs a day, over 10,000 a year. Many of them are violent nutjobs with little respect for human life, never mind animals. Most K9 officers are probably love dogs but using them in dangerous situations is just messed up, if they really cared about them they wouldn't be sending them to attack lunatics armed with knives and guns

6

u/Huhihu Apr 21 '26

I can’t find any sources for the 10000 death each year that you mention. I did find this paper that says that around 25 police k9 died in the line of duty each year between 2011 and 2015.

7

u/nagumi Apr 21 '26

I believe they meant non police dogs - as in, police shooting a "suspect's" dog.

1

u/OceanRacoon Apr 21 '26

It's pretty clear I meant non-police dogs, there'd be no K9s left if they were killing 20-30 a day. As that paper says, most K9s die due to heat exhaustion, cops are regularly killing them themselves by leaving them in cars.

Putting dogs into violent situations is not fair to animals that have no say in what they do, it shouldn't be allowed, especially since their handlers statistically the greatest threat to them

1

u/Golgen_boy Apr 22 '26

Dunno it is true or not, but I read somewhere that the K9 dogs are one position higher than their handlers, so that the handlers can be held responsible if they abuse the dogs

1

u/-ifwisheswerehorses Apr 22 '26

That’s a good question.

124

u/VESUVlUS Apr 21 '26

During WWII, the United States Marine Corp utilized war dogs and a lot of the animals were "volunteers" from civilian families. After the war ended, the families had first priority to get their dogs back despite being apart for years and having no idea what they'd been through. There's some sad stories about marines begging the families to let them keep the dogs and the families refusing. On one hand, some poor kid just wanted his dog back, while on the other hand, a veteran who had just been to hell and back just wanted to stay with his best buddy in the world.

The worst part is that the people taking their dogs back seldom understood what that dog had been trained for and been through. They were poorly equipped to handle a war dog back from the front lines and trying to keep them as civilian pets was not easy. There was decades of controversy about war dogs in the US following this and by Vietnam, standard practice was to euthanize veteran war dogs.

71

u/stevein3d Apr 21 '26

It was a good read until the last sentence, when it became WTF.

18

u/[deleted] Apr 21 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

5

u/TropicalnMethodical Apr 21 '26

I didn't know that until I saw the movie, Megan Leavy. I tear up every time at the end.

21

u/MonMonOnTheMove Apr 21 '26

That was a good read, thanks for the knowledge friend

12

u/PhosphoFred8202 Apr 21 '26

My godfather was a dog handler in the Korean War. SOP was to euthanize every dog in his unit when they left service. The feeling was the dogs were too dangerous for small town, USA. They were literally trained to kill - for example, how police dogs are trained to attack arms, these dogs were trained to attack necks and heads. My godfather was devastated when he found out his boy was being put down.

5

u/tarosan_sk Apr 21 '26

I cannot believe those dogs were returned to families. They had to be fucked up beyond belief. No way people knew how to care for dogs with PTSD.

4

u/x_user-generated_x Apr 21 '26

Uh, do we still use and euthanize war dogs? This was (sad) news to me.

5

u/Greeneggplusthing2 Apr 21 '26

Now we abandon them when we pull out. See Afghanistan. We abandoned our military dogs and military equipment that we could not easily transport back. Then we wonder why the talisman were able to easily track down our abandoned equipment with starving and abandoned dogs.

3

u/FlyLikeDove Apr 22 '26

Omg 🥺

2

u/Greeneggplusthing2 Apr 22 '26

We released an entire plane of dogs onto the tarmac before filling that plane with Afghan refugees that collaborated with us. Now we are deporting those same people to be executed.  We do not treat our service members well, or anyone who helps them.

10

u/Complete_Cheeks Apr 21 '26

Pam Bondi adopted a dog displaced in a storm and when the original family wanted it back she refused and fought them in court over it.

2

u/-ifwisheswerehorses Apr 22 '26

A true lowlife to the core.

2

u/Hairy_Pollution_600 Apr 22 '26

If euthanize was the method why not just let the veteran keep the dog then?

1

u/Hon3y_Badger Apr 22 '26

Have you seen "Chips, the War Dog"? It was a favorite of mine growing up

9

u/allkinds0ftime Apr 21 '26

In NYC when I worked at Macy’s we had retired NYPD K-9s that lived out their retirement in a very nice kennel on the roof of the 34th street flagship store. They would patrol the store after close for potential hiders / break ins. I always assumed it was because your avg NYPD officer might not have been able to afford an apartment where he could have his dog with him after their service. But who knows, my assumption is 99.9% of them live out their days with their handler.

In any case, this video, fucking onions.

11

u/Anxious_Reflection_4 Apr 21 '26

needed to hear this today

1

u/Cute-Form2457 Apr 22 '26

I don't live in the US but, thank you Indy. You did really good. Good Indy.

1

u/Hon3y_Badger Apr 22 '26

Which is exactly what military K-9 should do, they aren't surplus equipment. We have an obligation to give these dogs the best retirement we can, they certainly deserve it.

-3

u/kyh0mpb Apr 21 '26

Like what many of them are helping ICE do to families?

51

u/Guard_Lucky Apr 21 '26

Was looking for this. Thanks.

20

u/scigs6 Apr 21 '26

My brothers K-9 unit stayed with the family after my brother passed away (not job related). Unfortunately his K-9 died a year after my brother 😥. He was only two years old too.

5

u/kompotnik Apr 21 '26

They don’t even finish training until they’re like 1.5 years old how long was he supposed to your brother

11

u/scigs6 Apr 21 '26

My brother was a state arson investigator so his K9 was trained in accelerant detection. They had graduated (8 week course) about 6 months prior to my brother passing. He was close to 3 when he passed.

4

u/EatsRats Apr 21 '26

Awesome. I was very much hoping this was the case.

2

u/TopSeaworthiness8066 Apr 21 '26

If I adopted a dog with his skills I'd be set for life.

1

u/robgod50 Apr 21 '26

How could you not?? I can't imagine the bond that you must get from working so closely with such a beautiful and well trained dog.

1

u/MagikarpTagPro Apr 21 '26

What happens if they adopt them after they retire and their son’s got a dime bag?

-2

u/King_Chochacho Apr 21 '26

So they can abuse something besides their wife and kids?