AKRON, Ohio — At the University of Akron, there’s a special K9 officer known for brightening the day for students. Students know this dog by name. 

K9 Officer Dunkan is a familiar furry face around the University of Akron campus. His handler is officer Trevon Richardson, who is a University of Akron alumnus.

“Richardson: We get here at like 7 a.m. At 7:30, I like to come here to the Starbucks, then we’ll walk around campus, engage with the students, stuff like that,” said Trevon Richardson, K9 Officer.

Dunkan is a lab and known as a floppy-eared dog instead of a pointy-eared dog. 

“When people mostly think of K9’s they mostly think of the German Shepard, a narcotic dog that also does apprehension. He’s a little bit different. He’s a bomb dog,” said Richardson.

Dunkan is funded by the Department of Homeland Security and preforms preventative sweeps for sporting events and other community events. Dunkan is trained in Czech language commands. 

“I know for a while they were using German commands, the place where I went through my training with—they chose Czech,” said Richardson.

But there’s no language barrier of love for this pooch when he greets students around campus. Two-year-old Dunkan provides a much-needed boost for students.

“Classes are long. Especially my past junior year. Classes are exhausting. Work is exhausting. And then just seeing a cute dog, he’s always so high energy, running around. So it’s always good to see something. Dogs brighten everybody’s day of course,” said Chloe Nofziger, a senior at the University of Akron. 

Richardson says that he enjoys seeing how much students at the University of Akron love Dunkan, but his most important job is keeping people on campus safe. 

“We can have a lot of people on campus for different sporting events or different events in general. You never know what could happen. It’s a safe route to have a bomb dog and do those protective sweeps,” said Richardson.