Mackinac Island’s Resident Police Dog Is ‘Tiny Rock Star’

This story first appeared in the August 25, 2023, Mackinac Island Town Crier print edition

Standing less than a foot off the ground, Sheriff Woody doesn’t look like your typical police dog. The four-year-old Miniature Wirehaired Dachshund, originally from Chicago, stands just above most peoples’ ankles, but he’s got a tall personality. Sheriff Woody works with his handler, Island resident Special Deputy Sue Stejskal, who also happens to be a retired board-certified toxicologist, licensed veterinary technician, special deputy/forensic detection dog handler, former lead of the Forensic Support Unit and K9 Unit Trainer with the St. Joseph County Sheriff’s Department, and a published author. Dr. Stejskal has worked with many police K-9s before and has a new pal in Sheriff Woody, who, among other roles, recently became a police therapy dog on Mackinac Island.

In his role as a certified police therapy dog with the Mackinac Island Police Department (MIPD), Sheriff Woody works with kids at the Mackinac Island Public School teaching them about police K-9s and safety, and he does outreach at important Island community events, such as the 125th anniversary celebration of the banning of the automobile on Mackinac Island. Dr. Stejskal pops into the police department with him in the summer, and even though it is busy, he makes people smile, she said, even if the officers just give him a scratch on his head.

But that is not his only role. Sheriff Woody has a list of titles longer than his hot dog-shaped body. His full name is Hundleleben Oh It’s Sheriff Woody, CGC, TKN, RN, RI, USPCA-PSTC. Hundleleben is his kennel name and Oh is for the litter with which he was born. His titles follow, with the American Kennel Club for Canine Good Citizen (CGC), Novice Trick Dog (TKN), Rally (obedience) Novice (RN), Rally (obedience) Intermediate (RI), and his additional certification as a Police Service Therapy Canine with the United States Police Canine Association (USPCA-PSTC). In addition to his role as a therapy dog with MIPD, Sheriff Woody is a nationally certified police therapy dog, and a detection canine with the St. Joseph County Sheriff’s Department where he works part-time as a forensic detection dog for the crime scene unit and with the dive team, primarily on drownings. He is also a member of Crisis Response Canines where he can deploy for national critical incidents.

“He’s an opinionated little dude,” Dr. Stejskal said.

Sheriff Woody’s journey to the police department wasn’t the most common for police dogs. After Dr. Stejskal lost her partner, K-9 Buzz, a highly trained cadaver recovery dog, March 26, 2019, she didn’t think she would get another working dog. She already had Maple, an English Springer Spaniel trained as a bed bug detection dog, who now works at the Mackinac Island Airport keeping birds off the runway. Losing Buzz was devastating. She was okay with her new career path in the bed bug business, but little did she know that Sheriff Woody was also born March 26, 2019. It wouldn’t be until September when he would make his way into Dr. Stejskal’s life at the referral of a friend. After initially resisting, she woke up one day and thought, “I think I want that dog.”

“I had no intention of doing anything,” she said. “I just wanted a little buddy.”

She even thought, because of his size, Sheriff Woody would make a good bed bug detection dog. He could fit under the beds. But Sheriff Woody was a high-drive dog, and Dr. Stejskal started to mull things over. It was the beginning of 2020, and the bed bug business was at a standstill – hotels were shutting down because of the Covid-19 pandemic and had no need for it. At the same time, there was no dive dog for the dive team at the St. Joseph County Sheriff ’s Department, though Dr. Stejskal wasn’t even sure if she wanted back in the game. Sheriff Woody’s first test was being placed on the dive team boat with all kinds of distractions, like people water skiing.

“He sat on the front of the boat like he had been doing it his whole life,” Dr. Stejskal said.

So, Sheriff Woody became a detection dog. But Dr. Stejskal knows the role dogs can play in helping people get through tough times. She has experienced it firsthand. Sometimes, she said, the families of drowning victims who are recovered by dogs want to meet the dog that found their loved one, and it makes them feel better. So even though it is important for others to understand that K-9 dogs like Sheriff Woody are tools deployed to do jobs, she decided to get him certified as a therapy dog. And since she is on the Island so much – she had visited as a kid and even more as she got older, buying a place around 2008 – she asked Police Chief Doug Topolski to make him a certified therapy dog with the Mackinac Island Police Department.

Sheriff Woody is sweet, stubborn, and smart, Dr. Stejskal said, and he does what he wants to do. He may not be a working dog by breed, but his size does not impact his abilities at all – she calls him a “tiny rock star.” He likes tennis balls and playing games, often outsmarting them quickly. So, it’s true that Sheriff Woody is a small but mighty tool for police departments around the state and beyond. He is also just like us.

“He likes to chill, he really likes to sniff, and he loves to eat,” Dr. Stejskal said.