For the University of Oregon Police Department’s Explosive Detection Canine Handler Anthony Button, every day is bring your dog to work day.
Thor, a four-year-old silver Labrador retriever, arrived at the University of Oregon in 2022, fully trained to detect explosive devices.
“I got Thor when he was a little under two years old, and we got him fully trained,” Button said. “I went to a training facility in Washington that had four fully trained dogs at the time. I got to play with all of them for a couple of weeks, learning how to use the dogs, and then I got to pick the one I liked the best.”
Thor and Button typically work 12-hour shifts, arriving on campus at 7 a.m., where, according to Button, the pair train, go on walks and do “normal dog stuff.”
“I’ll try to do at least an hour to two hours of training every day. That’s basically like playing a game of hide and seek where I’ll go into buildings and hide his training aids somewhere in the building like an enclosed drawer or a cabinet,” Button said. “Then [I] just walk him around the building, and it’s up to him to find his training aids.”
Once he finds the aids, Button said, Thor is rewarded with a toy or a game of fetch. When he’s not training or playing, he takes naps in the office under the supervision of other officers while his handler is out on call.
According to Button, during bigger events, like football games, the routine changes.
“Our primary responsibility is to do a pre-game sweep,” Button said. “For football games, we get there four hours before kick-off. Because Autzen [Stadium] is so big, it’s always Thor and one of his co-workers.”
For large events, a second bomb dog will come in from either Portland or Salem to assist, Button said.
“We always try to have two dogs at football games, and we try to sniff and search as much of the stadium as we can before kickoff and then we’re available to respond to anything that might be called in, [such] as a suspicious or unattended backpack,” Button said.
Football, Button said, is mandatory for the pair, but they try to attend as many UO sporting events as they can, including soccer, basketball, tennis, lacrosse and softball, both when they’re on and off duty.
One of the biggest challenges with Thor, according to Button, is keeping him away from the concession stand at games.
“Working athletic events where there’s popcorn and nacho cheese on the ground, he’s still a dog, so he tries to eat everything that he can.”
The pair have been called out a couple of times for a bomb threat.
“It was last year or the year before, South Eugene High School had a bunch of bomb threats that were called in, so we responded there to go sweep the school,” Button said. “We’ve had to go to Oregon State University a couple of times for some bomb threats they’ve had.”
According to Button, sniffer dogs typically work until they’re about eight years old before they start looking at retirement.
On campus, Thor is a minor celebrity, and with over 4,000 followers on Instagram, he’s a big attraction for students, Button said.
“He’s pretty popular, which is really cool. Any time I take him for a foot patrol or just walking around campus doing our dog walks, people will always call his name when we walk by or people will ask if they can pet him,” Button said.
Button encourages students to come say hello when they see the pair on campus.
“I always tell people when you see us just walking around on campus, 99% of the time we’re just doing dog walks, so it’s fair game to come and say hi and give him pets,” Button said.
Besides keeping campus safe, Thor can act as a comfort for homesick students, according to Button.
“I think students that are here on campus, most of them have dogs at home that they miss, and so [there’s] good chance people just miss petting a dog, and so Thor’s a good outlet for that,” Button said.
Button describes Thor as a “big goofball.”
“He’s no different than a normal house dog. He’s got the full run of the house. He’s an only child at home, so he gets anything he wants and does whatever he wants. He has a million toys that are all his companions. He’s just a big goofball, and I love him to death,” Button said.
