This past June, Capt. Millie joined Sgt. Pepper as the second dog in ETSU’s K9 program to fulfill her own role to help keep campus safe. At just over a year old, Millie has been trained as an explosives detection dog. Alongside her handler, Sgt. Chad Proffitt, she will be working at sporting events and other special events to ensure a safe campus environment.

“We introduced her at Campus Safety’s Meet Us Before You Need Us event,” Proffitt said. “That was really the first time she had been out with the student body. We’ve been through buildings with administration and faculty staff periodically, but that was her first interaction. And then Saturday we worked the first football game and she had a lot of interactions with students there.”

Contributed

Millie is a Labrador retriever who came to ETSU from Germany. Her first birthday took place this past summer on June 25, around the time she came to campus.

“It’s traditional that K9s get a rank, but captain is more than a rank,” Proffitt said.

To bring Millie closer to the campus community, her rank of captain was decided by looking for a title that could connect with the theme of the Buccaneers as well as being a traditional K9 rank.

Due to her role as a working dog, Proffitt emphasized the importance of students remembering to ask before petting Millie, but he encourages people to come up and talk to her once she’s done with her pre-event sweeps.

“I enjoy working with Millie and getting her out and meeting people. We absolutely want to interact with the student body, but we’ve got to do it the right way,” Proffitt said. “We don’t want to startle her or interrupt her work, but absolutely if you see us out, ask if you can come up to us and we’ll be more than happy to talk to you and interact.”

At future events, Proffitt plans to have trading cards with a photo of Millie and a short bio about her to give out to people who come up to meet her after their searches.

Author