Officer Yogi joins UAF Police Department

The University of Alaska Fairbanks Police Department’s newest officer is short, furry and will do just about anything for his favorite toy.

Officer Yogi, the department’s first explosives K-9, arrived in Fairbanks last weekend and will make his public debut at Saturday’s Midnight Sun Run, which starts at 10 p.m. on the UAF campus.

Yogi, a 15-month-old chocolate Lab, is trained to sniff out explosives and alert his partner, UAF police officer Jill Copeland, when he finds them. He’s the only civilian bomb dog in Interior Alaska.

Unlike the stereotypical police K-9, Yogi is not trained to apprehend suspects, Copeland said. “He is very personable, like most Labs.”

Yogi will work at all of UAF’s major events and be available to assist other local law enforcement agencies with explosives detection and, eventually, tracking and search and rescue. His skills are a good fit for the UAF campus, said Kathy Catron, UAF’s police chief.

“We have had bomb threats on campus. We have had people missing on our campus and trails,” Catron said. “This is something that we can do to help protect our UAF community and be a valuable resource to the broader community.”

Copeland traveled to K2 Solutions Inc., a training center in North Carolina, earlier this spring to find a dog for the department. She knew right away that Yogi was the one.

“He was above and beyond every other dog we looked at,” she said. “He was focused. I was literally catching lamps falling off tables as he was barreling through stuff looking for his ball."

It takes more than a year to get a future police dog ready for duty, said Copeland, a 14-year law enforcement veteran who trained police dogs and handlers before joining the UAF Police Department in August 2022.

“Right away, they expose them to all kinds of environmental stuff: loud noises, new people, crowds,” she said. “A lot of dogs get nervous around all of those things. They need to be able to work in those conditions and can’t be distracted by everything else happening around them.”

Once he reached 6 months old, Yogi started obedience training, in addition to the ongoing exposure to new situations. At 13 months, he started his explosives detection training. Copeland and Yogi are now certified as an explosives detection team by the International Police Work Dog Association. Up next will be learning to find explosives on people. After that will come tracking and search and rescue training.

Eventually, Catron hopes to add another K-9 unit to the department. Doing so would allow better coverage for campus and the Interior, as well as providing an opportunity for local police officers to learn how to work with K-9s and their handlers in the field.

“The real work is just starting,” Catron said. “We are envisioning being a training resource for others in the Interior.”

SOCIAL MEDIA: Follow Yogi on Instagram at @searchandyogi.
 
NOTE TO EDITORS: A photo is available for download on the UAF news website.