Every dog has his day

Honoring late K9 officer’s memory    

_{The late retired K9 Officer Odie sits outside the Visitors Center on the Edinburg campus. Odie worked at legacy institution University of Texas-Pan American and UTRGV before retiring in 2020. He spent his retirement with his handler in San Antonio. COURTESY PHOTO}

In 2011, a one-year-old dog joined the force as a K9 officer at legacy institution University of Texas-Pan American.

After “nine remarkable years” of service in the University of Texas System and four years of retirement, the UTRGV Police Department announced the death of retired K9 Officer Odie and honored his memory in an April 15 Facebook post.

Odie was born March 2, 2010 and died April 14. He worked at UTRGV, UTPA and the University of Texas San Antonio during his tenure, and has made “invaluable contributions in safeguarding the UT community,” according to the post.

Odie’s handler Sergeant Molly Ralph said she has “tons of good memories” working with him.

“Police dogs in general are a little crazier than your standard-issued pet,” Ralph said. “He always needed something to do because he was a working dog. … His least favorite days were days off.”

Community Engagement Officer Marco Huerta oversaw the K9 program at the Brownsville Police Department when Odie and Ralph went in for training. 

Ralph and Odie, who was trained in the detection of narcotics, responded to requests for K9 assistance, including vehicle and area searches.

“The sense of smell from a police dog, it’s incredible, 100,000 times stronger than a human being,” Huerta said. “They can detect things that we probably couldn’t detect in a room.”

To become a police dog, Odie had to pass a selection test, where the department tests dogs for the right temperament for the job.

During his tenure, Odie placed in three K9 competitions held in Laredo and Hidalgo, completed at least 16 hours of training every month and became certified every year through the National Narcotics Detective Dogs Association.

Huerta said aside from training and work, Odie would attend different events with Ralph, such as presentations at schools for Red Ribbon Week, the largest drug-abuse prevention campaign in the United States.

“K9s have a very unique job,” he said. “[People] look, they see the police dog, and it’s like wow, you know? They find it amazing.” 

Ralph remembers children coming up to pet Odie during presentations and said he handled the attention well.

Odie retired from UTRGV in 2020 and continued to live at home with Ralph, who moved to San Antonio to work for UTSA PD. 

In retirement, Odie had his own bedroom and an orthopedic bed. He continued to make appearances at events and presentations at UTSA and was unofficially considered the school’s first K9 unit.

“He would spend as much time out in the yard as he wanted,” Ralph said, tearfully recounting how Odie spent his retirement. “He liked barking at the neighbor’s dogs. Stupid dog things like that.”

UTSA held a small prayer service to honor Odie, during which members of the university’s community shared thoughts about him.