43
Boardman police dog calls it a career
By DENISE DICK
He’s chased his last bad guy, sniffed out his last drug stash and tracked his last suspect.
Officer Robby, a veteran of the township police force, hung up the duty badge that he wore across his barrel chest for an emblem marking him retired.
Robby, one of the department’s two Belgian malinois police dogs, retired April 21 after eight years alongside Officer Brian Cionni, his handler. Cionni paid the township $1 and will keep his four-legged former partner as a pet.
The dog strained on his leash, pulling for the front door of the township government center when Cionni brought him to the police station earlier this week.
“He wants to be on duty,” Cionni said.
The nearly 10-year-old dog is a big hit with children and civic organizations.
“Can I pet him?” a woman asked Cionni as he and the dog stood in front of the government center.
“Yes, you can pet him,” Cionni answered. “In fact, he’ll insist on it.”
The dog trotted up to people in and outside the building, looking for a head pat or an ear scratch. When the attention givers stopped, Robby rubbed his head against their knee or hand, begging for more.
When he was on duty, though, it was a different story. Cionni’s commands switch from English to Dutch, alerting the dog that it’s time to work.
“When I tell him to lie down, and I say it in English, he lies down,” Cionni said. “But when I tell him to lie down and I say it in Dutch, he lies down, but he knows it means to be ready.”
He likened it to the difference between telling a child to do something using only the child’s first name and telling the child, using the kid’s first and middle names.
The dog worked as a deterrent for crime as well as a motivator to persuade suspects to emerge from hiding, the officer said.
Cionni relayed a story of a man who robbed a store clerk at gunpoint a few years ago. He and Robby tracked the armed suspect who ducked behind some bushes.
When Cionni warned that he would release Robby, the man surrendered, laying his weapon down and coming out of the shrubbery.
The township hasn’t made a decision about whether to replace the dog.
“I’ll ask the board [of trustees] for direction,” said police Chief Jack Nichols.
While he believes dogs are an asset to the department, there are cost concerns. A dog and the required training runs about $12,000.
Several years ago, a member of the community donated money for one of the dogs, Nichols said.
If the township decides to buy another police dog, Cionni said he wants to be its handler, too.
Still, Robby’s popularity persists.
When members of the public who have met Cionni and Robby see the human half of the partnership around town, they more often ask how the dog is doing than inquiring about Cionni.
“At Christmastime, it’s a toss-up if he gets more cards than I do,” Cionni said with a chuckle.