Newspaper Clipping - Newspaper Clipping Scan - New Police Canine Gunnar and Officer Dan Tocko - 3/8/2003 Gunnar/from 1A and Dipstick.
Some of the most unusual
es. names included Demon Shaper,
For instance, there were K-9 to 5 and Sunka, the Dakota
descriptive names, such as Indian word meaning dog.
Grassy, Spongy, Strongy, The Eagan Police /� h , �� C, 3�
Mighty, Spiky, Puffy, Sour, Department gets its K-9 dogs
Fasty, Tacky, Licky and Barky, from the St. Paul Police Eagan's new Km9m
a e
as well as color-inspired names, , Department,which provides the
Beige, Brownie, Old Blue, and animal and training for both the Five children submitted the winning entry in naming contest
Pinky. dog and the officer. Costs typi-
Many names were police cally range from $4,500 to by Erin Johnson
related, such as Cop Dog, Cuff, $5,500 to acquire the animal THIswEEK NEWSPAPERS
Pistol, Bullet, Justice and 911. and train both the dog and its
Some celebrities were honored handler. The children of Eagan have rt
in the contest,including Kojack, Tocko met his dog last week, spoken.
Einstein, Elvis, Snoop Dog and and the two will begin training After sifting through more _
Sting. at the K-9 Training School in St. than 500 entries for the Eagan
Pop culture had a definite Paul on March 10. In the mean- Police Department's K-9 naming
influence on some kids' choic- time,he said,the two are spend- contest, the city's newest officer
es,evidenced by the submission ing time bonding. finally has a name:Gunnar.
of Tetris, Matrix, Top Gun, I- "It's pretty much just Gunnar The new police dog, an all-
Hop, Falco, Sony, Frodo, and I right now,"he said. "This black German Shepherd,
SpongeBob, McDog, Trekie, is the first time I've worked with received his name courtesy of five :
Pepsi and Tic-Tac. a police dog, so this is a new contestants who all submitted the
Some kids chose to keepit experience for me,too." F'
P winning entries. _
local, with Wescott, Eagan, Typically the handler names Officer Dan Tocko, the dog's
Lonnoke (as in Lone Oak) and the dog, Tocko said, and partner, picked the name last
Tim Paw (as in Tim Pawlenty), although he had the final pick of week.
while others must have had the name,the department decid- Tocko said that Gunnar was
visions of lunch dancing in their ed it would be good for children actually one of his top three
head when they came up with to be involved in the process. choices before going into the con-
Nacho, Snicker's', Salsa, "The reason we did it is test,so when he saw it on the list, Submitted photo
Enchilada (Tocko Tomahto), because part of being a police he was pleasantly surprised. Eagan's new police dog, Gunnar, will soon begin training at the
Burrito and Smores. officer is being involved with "Prior to getting the dog, I K-9 Training School in St.Paul.Below are two examples of name
Some kids seemed to want the community. Getting kids thought, `if I did get a dog,what submissions from Eagan students that came with colorful illus-
an entirely different animal alto- involved is what we do," he would I name it?"'he said."I had trations.
gether, submitting names like said. "I can't believe how many three names in the back of my
Cat, Fish, Badger, Catpup and kids participated. I think it mind, and all three were on the
Meow. And others didn't seem worked out pretty well" list—Gunnar,Blitz and Dutch."
to want it to be an animal at all, Tocko said he ultimately chose `
but instead preferred inanimate Erin Johnson is at Gunnar because it is an old
names such as Bucket,Machine eagan.thisweek@ecm-inc.com. German family name and the dog �
is a German Shepherd.
"He just looks like a Gunnar.
What can I say?"he said.
The name was submitted sepa-
rately by Charlie Skahen,5,Anna E
Oeltjenbruns, 7, and Weston
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